Whodunit?
by Lady Paprika
Summary: In a desperate bid to save Smash Bros from going broke, Master Hand invites Smash fans to live at the Mansion for a year! How cool is that? Only it's not, because once they appear, murders begin to occur and everyone is a suspect. OC SUBMISSIONS CLOSED.
1. Master Hand's NOT so Brilliant Idea

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related. Just a fan of the franchise.**

**I thought this would be a bit fun. Who doesn't like a good OC story? The summary will clue you in. Read the end note to find out where I'm going with this! **

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><p>"Master Hand better make this quick," Bowser grumbled. "I have better things to do, you know."<p>

"Like what?" Mario challenged. Bowser shot him a glare, but chose not to say anything.

All the Smashers had gathered in great hall of the Mansion. This place was usually reserved for eating, special announcements, special occasions and parties. Master Hand had summoned all the Smashers to gather here at 1:00 PM. "Don't be late," the notice that was posted on each of the Smasher's dorm doors warned.

"I wonder what it could be about," Lucas wondered, looking worried. "The last time he gave an announcement was when he kicked out certain Smashers."

"He won't kick you out, if that's what you're worried about," Marth responded kindly. "He only kicked out the Smashers who placed last in the Tournament. You'll be fine. I'm sure it's nothing too serious."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Captain Falcon cut in, darkly. The racer leaned forward so that he could whisper conspiratorially to Lucas, "The time before he kicked out Roy and the rest was when he demanded to know who leaked nude pictures of Samus."

"Somebody leaked naked pictures of Samus?" Lucas asked, horrified.

"Falcon, shut up," Samus said, icily. The voluptuous blonde turned to Lucas and said, "You will probably _never_ see a naked picture of me. The day you do, you won't live to see another day."

Everyone who heard that statement shuddered. At that moment the double doors to the hall opened and a giant hand floated in and the chatter ceased.

When he'd finally made a stop at the head of the room he spoke. "Thank you for taking out the time to see me. I would not be calling you here unless I had a very important announcement to make. And I do."

He paused here, as if he didn't know what to say next. Then, in a strained voice he said, "I'm afraid we are facing some financial issues."

At first, nobody spoke. Nobody knew what to say. Falco was the first to regain his wits. "What do you mean? How can this have happened? We're one of Nintendo's most successful companies! And what do you mean some? How bad is it?"

With these questions suddenly came a barrage of other complaints and questions.

"Are you cutting our pay?" Peach shrieked.

"Does this mean our vacation days are cut short? Aw man, Candy's gonna be pissed!" Donkey Kong complained.

"You don't understand," Mr. Game & Watch was pleading. "This is the only place I can get a job!"

"If I go back to Ash, I'm going to get abused, you just watch," Pikachu muttered. "You know our relationship wasn't like on the screen right? The kid was super lazy and made me do everything for him!"

Jigglypuff nodded in assent. "And if I go back into the wild, nobody will appreciate my singing!"

"Nobody appreciates your singing here either, Jigs," Snake said, gruffly.

"Will every one be quiet, please?" Master Hand bellowed. All the Smashers quieted down. "To answer your questions Falco, there are not enough people who are interested in watching our matches anymore. Unless we bring more viewers to our matches, I am afraid we may have to move to a smaller house and we will have to cut down on paychecks, vacation days, and I may have er... Terminate some of your contracts."

This brought about new complaints. Lucas began to cry.

"That's why I've decided on something. You may not like this, but I figure this is the only way to create an even bigger audience," Master Hand spoke over the complaining. Everybody quieted immediately again.

"You're not going to bring more out of Nintendo characters to the fight, are you?" Ganondorf said.

"Oh God, if you bring Master Chief, I'm going to quit regardless. The dude's amazingly self absorbed," Snake said. The other people nodded in quiet assent.

"No, I've already thought that out. Instead, we're going to going to play a bit of a lottery game."

"Lottery game?" Link asked, confused. "I don't get it."

"You would if you would stop interrupting," Master Hand shot back. He was starting to grow annoyed at all of the interruptions. "When people buy tickets to see our matches in our stadiums, it will come with a little incentive. By buying these tickets, they will have a chance to live in the Smash Mansion for a year!" he finished dramatically.

There was a long silence. "I still don't get it," Popo said, confused.

Master Hand sighed. He knew some of the Smashers were a bit slow. "Not only will our fans buy our tickets to watch you fight. They will also buy tickets in hopes of staying at the Mansion for a year, all expenses covered. If a fan purchases a ticket, and it just so happens to be gold, as opposed to red, then that means they will be able to secure a seat at the Mansion! During the time they are here, a reality show will be filmed as you Smashers and these lucky fans interact throughout the year! You will eat together, go out together, fight together and essentially live together! Now do you get it?" He explained patiently.

"No offense, but this sounds like a really stupid idea," Star Wolf growled.

"For once, I'll have to agree with the wolf," Fox said.

"Can you imagine the repercussions this is going to have on us? We're going to have obsessed fans on our cases the whole time!" Ike said. "What if they steal my stuff and sell it on eBay?"

"This isn't your choice to make. I have already met with the board and they agree that this idea is brilliant. The tickets are in circulation, so there's nothing you can do about it," Master Hand responded, a little miffed that they weren't responding to his brilliant idea as well as he liked.

There was a collective groan. "Well thanks for telling us _after_ you made the choice!" Marth yelled.

"No problem," the giant hand responded sarcastically. "Meeting dismissed." And with those words, the hand floated out of the room feeling a bit disgruntled.

The Smashers were right to feel like this wasn't a good idea though. Because their lives were about to take a turn for the worse.

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><p><strong>Aaand the story ends with a bit of foreshadowing!<strong>

**Okay, here's where the fun part comes in! The fans of this story will be created by none other than, you the reader! Get creative as possible, and please note that I do not accept "overly perfect" characters otherwise known as Mary or Gary Sues. I will also not accept more than 15 OCs. There are a couple of requirements that I ask for:**

**1. I will need a description of how the OC looks. I will also need the basics. Name, age, etc. You may also describe the personality. What does your character do for a living? I'd like for you to create a character that has a life revolving around him/her and a history etc. The more detailed and interesting your character is, the longer your character will stay alive because I have more content to go off of! ;)**

**2. In addition to this, you MUST submit at least one reason/motive behind why your character may be the murderer. After all, there will be an equal amount of suspicion amongst the OCs, Smashers and everyone else living in the Mansion!**

**3. Please do NOT write the description of your OC in a review. You may review saying you're interested in submitting an OC, but please PM me the details. I do not want other reviewers knowing all of the OC's backstory. That would give away a lot of the story if everyone already knew everybody else's background story.**

**4. Have fun, and please review on your way out!**


	2. Plane Rides are for Introductions

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related. Just a fan of the franchise.**

**Okay, I'm a bit nervous about this. I hope I don't screw this up!**

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><p>It was a dark and stormy night the day the "Chosen Few" as Ike had dubbed them sarcastically, was expected to arrive and the Smashers were beginning to grow anxious, if not downright annoyed.<p>

"Wow," Sonic grumbled, staring out the window in the kitchen. He was there with Ganondorf, Zelda, Lucario, Samus and Link. All of them, with the exception of Lucario and Samus were doing the dishes. The Bounty Huntress and the Pokemon were instead just keeping the rest of them company. "It's a dark and stormy night. Seriously, if this were a story, then the author would suck with this big, fat cliche. I mean, come on!"

"I like the rain. I find it soothing to listen to," Lucario commented quietly.

"Are we really talking about the weather?" Samus cut in, impatiently. "Are we really not going to talk about the fact that tomorrow our lives are gonna suck even more?"

"I think you all are being drama queens about this. How bad can it be? I'm sure these people will be normal," Zelda said, trying hard to be optimistic. She felt like she was having this conversation for the umpteenth time.

"Zelda's right. We have to give these people a chance. If I can tolerate living with Ganondorf, then I can handle living with these people," Link said. Ganondorf scowled at Link but said nothing. Everybody was too tired to get into an argument. This past week, the Smashers had been hard at work scrubbing the Mansion until it was spotlessly clean in an effort to help the guests.

"I feel like we have gone over this too many times to even count," Sonic yawned. "It's going to happen either way. We can't prevent them from coming here."

"Unless we made their lives miserable while they were here," Ganondorf said thoughtfully. He picked up a pot and began to scrub it. "If we make it known that we are not welcoming them then they may take an early leave."

"That's a stupid idea," Link snarled. "It's counterproductive, first of all. The point of this is to make people _want_ to come. If nobody wants to come then we can kiss our jobs goodbye."

Zelda looked convinced by Link's statement but Sonic and Samus seemed to be taking the Gerudo's words in thoughtfully. Lucario, on the other hand seemed indifferent to the whole situation. He had very little to say on the matter. The humans would most likely not want to talk to him, and he was content with that. The topic of The Chosen Few had little effect on him.

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><p>"Excuse me?" A young man with shaggy brown hair and green eyes asked. He seemed to be around the age of 23. "My name is Sean Whitefield. I was wondering if this is the right place for the pick up spot for The Smasher's Mansion."<p>

The woman he was addressing at Nintendo International Airport was standing behind an information counter. She did not even look up. "You think you're the first one to show up wanting to sneak in? Well you're not."

"But I uh..." The man began awkwardly. He was wearing glasses with thick, black frames that seemed to constantly slide down the bridge of his nose.

The woman cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. Get lost!"

The man stood there for a few moments as if unsure of what to do then turned around and looking beyond confused, left the counter. A couple of moments later the woman was interrupted again.

"Is this the right place for the plane that's leaving for Smash Mansion?"

The woman this time looked up, annoyed but saw nobody. "What the...?" she said to herself.

"I'm down here!" the voice chirped in a girlish voice. The woman peered over the counter and saw a little girl who seemed to be around 10 years old. Her huge blue eyes held a look that suggested she'd had a bit too much sugar.

"Oh, well aren't you adorable!" the woman cooed. "Are you lost, honey? Where are your parents? What's your name?"

The little girl's excited demeanor seemed to vanish slightly, with the woman's words. She did not seem to like the intruding questions as much as the fact that the woman was acting like she was a baby. "My name is Cammy and I'm not lost if this is the flight where I'm supposed to go to Smash Mansion." The lady behind the desk noticed that she did not mention her parents which raised her suspicions.

"Do your parents know you're here?" she persisted.

Cammy tugged at one of her springy, light brown pigtails and turned around, looking at the crowd. "My parents are here. I'm trying to look for them... Ah, there they are!" She pointed to a middle aged man and a short, young woman who were standing about fifty feet away.

The woman looked reassured. "Okay. May I see your ticket then? I can redirect you to the right gate if you're lost." Cammy gave her a golden ticket and the woman smiled. "You are definitely in the right place! I hope you have lots of fun at the Mansion, dear!"

Cammy flashed a smile back sweetly, though they did not meet the irritation she was feeling at still being addressed like a child. She hopped away. She noticed that information lady was still watching her so she skipped over to the man and woman that she'd pointed out to be her parents. In truth, she'd never seen these two people in her life, but now she studied them like they really were her parents. The first thing she noticed was that they were definitely not married.

The woman was too young to be involved with the man, first of all. She seemed to be around 24 years old, whereas the man seemed to be in his mid thirties. The woman had the brightest green eyes Cammy had ever seen and black hair and although she seemed pretty to Cammy she also seemed a little annoyed at the middle aged guy who was talking to her.

"My job is really boring. So's my life really, as you can probably tell already." the man said. "Where did you say you were from again?" he asked.

"I didn't," the woman responded icily.

"Oh... Alright then," the man responded. He seemed unperturbed by her behavior. Instead he focused his attention on Cammy suddenly and asked, "Are you lost, kid?"

Cammy was tired of this question. "No, not really," she responded. She held up her golden ticket and the man seemed to understand at once.

"Yes, I got one too. But... You're kind of young, aren't you?" he blurted. Cammy scowled.

"Just because I'm a little girl doesn't mean I can't take care of myself!"

The man studied her for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say," he said. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "It seems like I'll be seeing a lot of you this year then. Might as well get these awkward introductions out of the way," he chuckled, though Cammy didn't know why. Neither, it seemed, did the woman. "I'm Joeb Jangles."

Cammy seemed to brighten at his careless attitude. It was refreshing that he wasn't treating her like a child anymore. "I'm Camelia Echobli. But everyone calls me Cammy."

"I'd say it was nice to meet you, but I barely know you so I can't say for sure," Joeb responded. Cammy decided that she liked Joeb at once, though he seemed a bit odd. "And you are...?" he addressed the woman who had been following the conversation but showed no signs of wanting to join it.

She looked startled at being addressed. Then she collected herself and responded, "Elizebeth Rivers." she did not offer any more information. Joeb did not press for details.

Cammy, who felt intimidated by the woman's icy demeanor followed suit, though she did say cheerily, "It's nice to meet you, Elizebeth." Elizebeth's eyes seemed to soften a little at Cammy's attitude, but she did not say anything.

At that moment a cool, feminine voice echoed through the terminal. "Gate 23 is now open for flight 223 to board. Destination, Smash Mansion. All passengers should have their tickets ready upon boarding. All passengers are requested to leave their luggage at the gate, as they will be transported in a separate flight. Thank you."

A line began to form. There seemed to be more than fifty people in line, but it soon became evident that many of these people did not have a golden ticket and were promptly thrown out. Among the first to board was a girl around 15 years old with long, beautiful golden hair. She was wearing an extremely short blue dress with a belt that seemed to be made of diamonds wrapped around her waist. Knee high lace up leather boots adorned her feet and she wore white fingerless gloves that stretched up to her elbow. The way she carried herself and her mannerisms suggested that she was, at the very least, of noble birth. "Oh Rubarity, it would be amazing if I got to meet Link," she sighed to herself. A boy who was standing behind her snickered.

"You can't be serious. Of course all the girls here are going to hit on either Link, Marth or Ike. Typical," he said in a disgusted tone. The girl whirled around, her blonde hair whipping around her face to see who had talked. Her eyes narrowed in on a short, tanned boy behind her who was about 14 years of age. He was dressed in athletic clothes, and his jet black hair was so messy that the girl couldn't help wondering whether he'd kept it that on purpose.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "I do not recall asking you to eavesdrop on me."

"The point of eavesdropping is that the person who eavesdrops on you does not wait for permission," he said, giving off the air of a highly intelligent person. "I'm Brandon. Brandan Barajas. And who are you?"

The girl drew herself up, and stuck her chin out, looking as regal as possible. "I am Princess Dreygon of the Kingdom Tepper."

"You're a princess?" Brandon said in a shocked tone. "No way!"

The girl smirked, obviously pleased that he was surprised. "I am not only princess of Tepper, I also rule it."

Brandon's hazel eyes showed a look of even more surprise. But a second later the look had vanished. "So what?" he asked casually. "Doesn't make you better than me."

"I never said I was," Drey shot back. "You, however, assumed that_ you_ were better than me."

Brandon was about to open his mouth to argue back, when a quiet voice cut in. "Excuse me, but you're holding up the line."

Drey and Brandon turned around to see who had spoken, for they thought nobody was listening in on their conversation. A girl of about 19 years old, with a book tucked underneath her arm was looking at both of them. People were starting to cut in front of them into the plane. They all hastily began to walk together down the walkway. Drey and Brandon studied her. She did not seem irritated, despite what she'd said. She had pin straight violet hair that faded into a soft lavender color at the tips and ended at her shoulders. Drey was about to ask whether she'd dyed it or not, but upon further inspection, the girl seemed strange overall so it did not seem likely. What unsettled Drey the most about this girl was not the hair. It was her eyes. The irises were a deep shade of crimson, and the whites of her eyes were actually a yellowish color.

Drey shifted her gaze to Brandon to see if he was as startled as she was by this strange girl's appearance, but Brandon's expression was almost curious.

"You are nervous by my appearance?" the strange girl asked Drey. "Don't worry, I get that a lot..."

"You're Lynn, aren't you?" Brandon asked the purple haired girl. He was taking in the way her violet dress seemed to sway even though there was no wind, and he seemed especially interested in the red, pearl necklace she wore as though it confirmed his suspicions.

Now it was her turn to look surprised. "Yes, Lynn Dawn... But how did you...?"

"Your name was in the papers! You're like something of a miracle... The only known Pokemorph that ever survived. I read about you for my science project. Your parents are famous for that, you know? Well, they always were even before that, but they are even more now," Brandon hastily corrected.

"Excuse me, but what is a Pokemorph?" Drey asked, puzzled.

"I am, quite simply, fused with a Pokemon," Lynn answered. "I share the same type of powers, not to mention characteristics of the Pokemon that I morphed with..." Lynn answered as they all took their seats on the plane. Brandon sat next to the window, while Drey sat on the aisle seat. Lynn was left to take the aisle seat next to a very tall boy with shockingly white hair.

"So, let me guess, you're morphed with Misdreavus or Mismagius?" he asked, listening in on the conversation. Then, noting their curious looks he introduced himself. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to butt in. I'm Jeka Haret."

There was no other word for it, Jeka looked... Well, cool. He had on a blue jacket and a white shirt underneath, with red pants. He seemed very confident and outgoing and exuded an air of friendliness.

"Hi Jeka," everybody around said in unison.

Lynn added, "Yes, to answer your question, I am morphed with a Mismagius."

"Well, that's actually kind of cool," he said. He smirked a little, running a hand through his snow white hair.

"Is that hair real?" Drey asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Do _you_ think it's real?" Jeka asked.

"Nope," Drey answered honestly.

Jeka smirked even more. "Now I wish that I'd thrown in a bet for this, 'cause this hair is 100% real." But he wasn't the only one who had unnatural hued hair.

Directly behind Jeka sat Elizebeth Rivers who once again was irritated by the person she'd sat next to. The girl had extremely long magenta hair that stood out from her tanned skin. She kept petting it nervously. "Could you stop doing that?" she scowled.

The girl fixed her sky blue eyes on Elizebeth but did not say anything. She did, however stop petting her hair and instead began to work it up in a great big bun.

Elizebeth couldn't help herself. "How long is that hair of yours anyway?"

The girl solemnly replied, "It's been awhile since I cut it... It's up to my ankles..."

"Wow, looks like I met a Rapunzel," Elizebeth muttered to herself.

"Excuse me? My name is not Rapunzel," the girl said, confused. "I go by Rio Johansen Angelo."

"I didn't _say_ you were Rapunzel... Just that you're kind of like her," Elizebeth responded. She felt embarrassed that the girl did not take to her little joke.

"I don't understand." Rio readjusted her tank top and the white hoodie she wore over it to cover her curves up a little.

"Oh you know," Elizebeth snapped. "Rapunzel, from the fairytale. She lets down her hair from a high tower, and a prince climbs up it and falls in love with her and rescues her and they live happily ever after?"

"A prince?" Rio's eyes lit up. "You think I am Rapunzel? What is the prince's name in this fairytale? Ike? Ike isn't a prince though..."

Elizebeth slapped her forehead with her hand. "No, I was just kidding. Because you both have long hair. And who said anything about Ike?"

Rio blushed. "Nothing," she responded quickly. She wished her sister was sitting next to her instead of this Elizebeth. The woman next to her seemed very cold, and Rio found it a lot easier to converse with her sister, Dark. An awkward silence fell over them that was punctured by a loud laugh coming from across them.

"...And so I told that sucker that Chuck Norris always comes first when it comes to mail delivery, and I biked away like hell!" a boy of about 15 years of age finished telling the girl next to him, though the girl was laughing so hard, he wondered if she'd heard the last part of his humorous story. He was pale, with black eyes and black hair that was sticking out of a blue ball cap that he wore. Across his lap, he held a bug net. An easy smile had settled across his face. "So, tell me about that feather of yours. Bet that's a story worth hearing."

The girl's laughter faded away. She casually reached up to touch the white feather that he was talking about, for it was tucked behind her ear. "Not really," she admitted. She turned her chocolate brown eyes away from the boy to stare out the window. "Just a gift from my brother is all."

"He seems to be pretty special to you then," the boy probed.

"As special as a brother gets," the girl responded shortly. He was more curious now that he could tell that she didn't want to talk about her brother, but he speculated that now was not the time to press for details. He found her easy to talk to, and he didn't want to spoil that by forcing her to respond to something she so clearly did not want to talk about. Right as he'd made this decision, she turned around to face him again and tucked her shoulder-length black hair behind an ear and said with a smile, "Sorry. I know you're a mail delivery assistant as Crossington but I don't even know your name."

"That's my fault, I didn't say it," he responded. "I'm Zack Taran. I've been living on this planet for 15 years, favorite colors are black and blue, I love Italian food, though I will never say no to a good to honest hamburger. My blood type is..."

"Okay, okay! I just asked for a name!" the girl laughed. "I suppose I haven't really introduced myself either. I'm Riina Silver. I am 16, I have a lot of favorite colors and I like eating anything," she said. She suddenly smirked and added, "Though I wouldn't say no to a good to honest hamburger. Aaand I'm an O negative," she finished, eliciting a chuckle from Zack.

"Riiiiiiina," Zack said drawing out her name. "Too bad. I'm an AB, you know."

"Yeah, that's my real name, but I prefer everyone to call me Ri. Riina sounds stupid," she explained.

"So I'll call you Riina then," Zack decided in a tone of finality.

"No! I like Ri!" Ri protested.

Zack chuckled and held up his hands in defense, "Okay, okay. Ri it is."

She smiled in satisfaction.

"Are you two done flirting?" a voice behind them asked. "_Some_ of us are trying to get some sleep!"

"Yeah, my bedtime's at 9 PM, you know!" a little girl exclaimed.

Zack and Ri turned around, embarrassed and also curious to see who had spoken and spotted Cammy and Joeb. Cammy had a blanket wrapped around her. She seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep. Joeb was peering out the window. "Darn, I think we already took off, and I didn't even realize it. How long do you think we've been airborne and how long's this flight again?"

"I wouldn't know," Ri mumbled. She twisted back into her seat again, suddenly anxious to not be a part of this conversation.

"The flight should take about an hour," Zack responded. "Sorry to bother you. I'm Zack, and this is Ri,"

"Yeah, we know. We were sitting behind you," Cammy responded sassily. "I'm Cammy and this is Joeb."

Zack grinned condescendingly. "Well aren't you smart for a six year old?"

"I'm ten!" Cammy shouted. Everybody on the flight grumbled at her to shut up and she immediately quieted down. "I'm ten," she repeated, but in a whisper this time.

"Yeah? Well where are your parents then, kid?"

Cammy was struggling to not yell again and to remain pleasant, but she was having a really rough time of it. "My name isn't, "Kid" it's Cammy. And they let me come by myself," she added.

"You're a big girl," Zack teased.

"Oh, leave her alone," Joeb responded carelessly. Zack opened his mouth, perhaps to make a nasty remark about how a 36 year old was sitting next to a 10 year old but thought the better of it. Instead he slid down to his seat.

The rest of the flight was pretty much uneventful as the fans began to get to know each other, or in Elizebeth and Rio's case, avoiding getting to know each other. Others slept, or peered out the window. Before everyone knew it, the plane had landed as smoothly as it had taken off and it was only when the flight attendant had announced their arrival that they realized they'd finally arrived in their destination and began filing out of the plane

"I can't believe we're finally here," Sean Whitefield, said in awe.

"Me either," Drey responded breathlessly. There were murmurs of agreement. They all stared at the Mansion's silouette through their windows. It loomed ahead in the darkness, silently and rather ominously as well, in Lynn's opinion. She felt a mixture of excitement and dread coursing through her veins, though she could not explain why.

Wordlessly, they began to depart for their final destination, not knowing that amongst them was a person who was about to make their dream vacation an utter nightmare.

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><p><strong>MORE FORESHADOWING LOLOL<strong>

**Sorry, this chapter was a bit slow, but I needed to familiarize myself with the OC's, not to mention I thought it'd be better if all of you were familiar with the other OCs. I hope you guys thought I did okay with them. If there was anything you didn't like about the chapter, please don't hesitate to tell me. The next chapter will be when the Smashers and the fans finally meet so stay tuned!**


	3. Of Friendships and Enemies and Rivalries

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related. Just a fan of the franchise.**

**Thanks for the feedback, guys! Any specific detail that I messed up on (Such as confusing Mismagius and Misdreavus) has been corrected. Sorry for not updating sooner. I got a little lazy and then a little thing called life stepped in. Anyways, onto chapter 3!**

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><p>The rain had stopped, and the night air smelled wet. A cool breeze rippled through the grass that the Chosen Few were now crossing. Lynn's floaty dress did not seem so out of place anymore with an actual breeze floating through.<p>

"This place looks a bit creepy at night," Ri commented to Drey.

Drey didn't respond but she was thinking the same thing. The Mansion, usually so beautiful by day looked eerie at night. Nervously, she gripped a white stone with a dragon carved into it that she always had with her. It usually sat on the crown she usually wore, but she'd decided to take it off for the trip and carry the stone in a more private place. She didn't want people knowing the power it contained within it.

The group nervously walked towards the Mansion where it sat looming uninvitingly. Aside from Ri, nobody else admitted that they were all a tad nervous. The only person who seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere was Cammy. The little girl was humming a little tune to herself and then quite suddenly exclaimed, "Look at all those stars!" she pointed at the sky where there seemed to be millions of them, shining brighter than usual. "I've never seen so many!"

It was with that statement that everybody seemed to ease up a little. They stared up at the sky in awe, admiring it for a couple of minutes before Jeka cleared his throat. "We should be moving. We're already a bit late."

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><p>"I cannot believe the gall of those people! Thinking they can come in as late as they want!" Peach said, frustrated. "Are we supposed to wait forever?"<p>

"You always arrive late to parties that we're invited to," Snake pointed out.

"There's a difference between being fashionably late and then being rudely late!" Peach snapped.

"Of course there is," Pikachu grumbled sarcastically. Everybody's temper seemed to be escalating the more time passed and the Chosen Few still hadn't arrived.

"Damn them," Luigi muttered. "I bet the pasta's already cold."

"I hope this will not be your attitudes when they come. You must be friendly, and courteous," A disembodied voice stated. Everybody turned to Master Hand who was tapping his giant fingers against the floor in an impatient way. He was growing tired of the Smashers' complaints. _I've spoiled all of them entirely too much..._ He thought, disturbed.

It was with this thought that the lights suddenly went out.

"What the-" Falco yelled.

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><p>"Soo, who wants to knock?" Brandon asked. They'd all been staring at the great doors to the Mansion for what seemed like hours. In reality, it was just a couple minutes.<p>

"I will!" Rio piped up, her heart hammering. _I wonder if Ike will remember me..._ she thought to herself.

"I could do it, I'm pretty good at ringing doorbells myself," Zack joked.

"Actually, I think I should do it," Drey responded. "As a princess, I know the etiquette of handling such affairs," she explained loftily.

"Who died and made you queen?" Elizebeth muttered nastily.

Drey turned on her, her eyes flashing dangerously. "What did you say?"

"Boy, this is going to get ugly," Ri muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, this comment was heard by Cammy who decided to question it.

"What's going to get ugly, Ri Ri?" Cammy asked cheerfully. Drey and Elizebeth who already had their hackles raised, rounded on Ri too, who clamped a hand over Cammy's mouth. Zack helpfully tried to intervene by saying that Ri didn't mean any harm but Drey and Elizebeth weren't buying it. Somehow, the others got dragged into the argument too.

"I don't care how long your hair is, stay out of this!" Elizebeth hissed to Rio who had tried to helpfully separate the three girls.

"Excuse me?" Rio yelled. "Say that one more time about my hair, if you please!"

"Would you all just shut up?" Sean said, but nobody was listening to him.

"If we all just got along maybe we could've been inside..." Brandon said, but nobody was listening to him either.

Cammy, Jeka and Lynn watched interestedly, but made no effort to try and stop the fray.

It was Joeb who finally managed to get through the fight and peering at the button he smirked. "I do so love pressing buttons," and saying so he pressed the doorbell button. Almost immediately the door swung open into total darkness, but only half of their group that wasn't arguing seemed to realize what happened.

"This doesn't look very welcoming," Lynn observed.

"Maybe they're playing hide and seek! That's why it's dark!" Cammy exclaimed excitedly. "I'll find them first!" and before the others could protest she bounded into the darkness.

"Wait! ...Cammy," Sean said weakly once the darkness had swallowed her up. "Ah, what do we do now...?"

"I guess we should follow her in," Joeb said. Brandon, Jeka and Sean all nodded nervously. The four males entered the Mansion. Lynn, on the other hand waited for the argument amongst the girls to die down which didn't take long once Drey realized that the doors had opened.

"Hey! Who opened the door? Why is it dark?" she exclaimed, forgetting entirely about the argument.

"I do not know..." Lynn said. "It would seem as though Camelia and the other boys have already gone in."

"We should probably head in too then," Zack decided. Ri nodded in agreement, and together they also went in, followed closely by Drey.

Rio, who found Elizebeth and Lynn's cold and strange presences highly nerve wracking also didn't want to tarry outside for too long, so she said, "Please! Wait for me!"

Lynn and Elizebeth were the last people to walk in, and once they'd stepped in the door creaked shut, like a predictable horror story. The hair on the back of Elizebeth's neck prickled upward. "Hello?" she called out, feeling stupid. _This is exactly how people die in horror movies, by drawing attention to themselves_ she chided herself.

"We're over here!" Ri called out.

"Whose we?" Elizebeth asked.

"Ri, Zack and myself!" Drey called out. Lynn noted that her tone seemed a pitch higher. Lynn herself welcomed the darkness and found no reason to be afraid of it. It was where she found herself most comfortable though she didn't voice these thoughts out loud. Everybody would think she was weirder than what they already thought of her.

"Where's Rio? Didn't she follow you?" Lynn asked, as they followed the place where they heard Ri and Drey's voice.

"She did?" Zack asked, puzzled. "That's strange... Rio?" He called out. There was no answer.

"I don't like the sound of this," Ri said, shakily.

"What sound?" Zack joked weakly. "It's pretty quiet here." The others laughed nervously.

"I'm sure she took a wrong turn," Elizebeth said, trying to be rational. "Let's try to stick together, shall we?"

Scarcely had they taken two steps when the light flickered back on, followed by a series of angry bleeps.

They all exchanged looks of confusion. "What was that?" Drey wondered. A moment later Mr. Game and Watch popped out one of the corridors, followed by Pikachu.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu squeaked, pointing at the people.

"Ohhh, it's so cute!" Ri cooed.

There were more bleeps coming from Game and Watch but nobody understood what he were saying. Frustrated, the 2-D character pointing to himself and then to the hall in a gesture that seemed to be saying, "Follow me!"

The others looked at each other, shrugged and began to follow him. "Wait!" Elizebeth said suddenly. "We're forgetting about Rio."

"Pikachu? Pika, pikachu," Pikachu responded, but since none of them understood Pikachu they all looked confusedly at him. Except for Lynn.

"It would appear that this Pokemon is trying to reassure us of Rio. Perhaps he knows where she is, and we should not worry about her, but keep moving on," Lynn said. Pikachu faced her with a sharp, curious gaze in his eyes, but didn't say anything. The Pokemon could sense something strange within Lynn, but what it was, Pikachu did not know but he knew he did not like it.

Mr. Game and Watch led them down a hallway and then opened the door and ushered them in. To their surprise, the others were already inside this vast room. "This must be the great hall! You know where they have all the important announcements and stuff," Ri said excitedly. "I always see it on TV, when they announce tournament winners!"

The hall was magnificently furnished with round tables everywhere. There was a huge stage at the front where Master Hand floated.

"They don't seem too happy," Elizebeth commented. She was staring at the Smashers who were seated. All of them had annoyed expressions on their faces.

"We must be really late," Zack responded. "They must be hungry." Nervously, he ducked behind Lynn who was also a little cowed by the annoyed aura she could feel emanating from the Smashers.

"I guess the others are already here..." Drey said absentmindedly. Her eyes scanned the room over Joeb, Jeka and Cammy who were already seated and landed on her target - Link. He was talking to Zelda at the moment, but when he felt Drey's gaze on her's he looked at the girl and Drey blushed furiously and swiveled her eyes elsewhere.

Zack shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me."

"Ah, I suppose you are the rest of the lucky winners?" Master Hand said in a beaming voice. "I'm quite glad to see that you made it here. I must apologize about the little black out. Pikachu here has a certain fondness for chewing through certain wires," he said with a very forced laugh.

Elizebeth cringed. _Sounds like Pikachu is going to be in a lot of trouble later on..._ spying the little Pokemon, she noted that he also seemed quite abashed and felt sorry for him.

"Now that we're all here, the introductions can begin! I would like each of you to formally come up onstage and introduce yourselves." A loud growl punctuated his sentence that seemed to come from Wario's stomach.

"What?" he asked, defensively. "I haven't eaten in ages, so cut me some slack!"

"He sounds charming," Ri commented sarcastically to Zack who grinned.

"Er... Maybe instead of formal introductions, we should get to know the fans by ourselves while we eat?" Zelda called out helpfully. Link nodded in agreement.

"Hmm... I suppose so. A most excellent idea, Zelda! Yes, that is what we shall do. Don't be afraid to roam around getting to know one another! The food shall be here right... Now!" and saying so, the giant hand snapped his fingers and steaming trays of food appeared quite suddenly on tables off to the side.

"Me first!" Wario yelled, and scrambled to the buffet line. A bunch of other Smashers also ran in haste to the food. The more polite Smashers began milling about talking to the newcomers.

Ri wrinkled her nose in disgust at Wario and Bowser who hadn't even exited the buffet line before starting to shovel food into their mouths, before turning to Zack. "Shall we go around then?"

"After you, m'lady." Zack bowed. She smiled and went ahead, Zack following in tow.

Elizebeth didn't exactly know what to do at this point. She'd never been good at making friends. She supposed she had once upon a time, but that was before all her friends betrayed her. She sighed to herself. _I shouldn't even be here... This whole thing is about making friends and I'm no good at that... Which is exactly what_ they_ were hoping for..._ She thought, thinking about her so called "friends" who had entered her into this tournament.She noted that even Lynn was going around, making herself at home with Lucario and Lynn was downright creepy, though she'd never admit that to Lynn's face.

_Lynn Dawn..._ A voice penetrated Lynn's head and she warily turned to Lucario.

"You can speak?" she asked, keeping her tone neutral. But she was faintly surprised.

_Only in your mind... Otherwise, I am like every other Pokemon who can only communicate by saying their name. I can sense your aura, you know._

"Can you?" she asked.

_Oh yes, and here is a warning for you. Control your emotions, for it will be your downfall someday if you cannot._

"Is that a prophecy or a threat?" Lynn asked in a challenging voice.

_It could be both if you don't heed my words... Bad things are about to happen in this Mansion. When I told Master Hand about these feelings I was experiencing he just laughed me off. But I am here to warn you and to guide you. Do not let your guard down.  
><em>

"Why me?" Lynn dared to ask.

_I believe that you have a very important part to play, but whether for good or bad, I cannot tell yet... _Lucario's crimson eyes pierced Lynn's eyes with such severity that she could feel it cut through her very thoughts and heart. _All I can sense from you right now is that your aura is very dark and not very promising... Take care.  
><em>

"Wait!" Lynn yelled, but Lucario drifted away slowly, not deigning to respond. He'd said everything she feared about herself and more puzzling things besides. She didn't know exactly what to make of it yet.

* * *

><p>"Excuse me," Rio said, accidentally bumping into Samus. "Sorry!"<p>

"Clumsy, aren't you?" Samus responded coolly, before leaving.

Rio blushed. _Why is everyone so mean?_ she wondered. Samus was only the third Smasher she'd bumped into. _Well at least it wasn't Peach. She'd flay me alive_... she shuddered. She and the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom had never been on good terms on account of Dark and Peach's rivalry. Dark and Peach had always clashed and since Rio was the sister of Dark, she was also subject to Peach's dislikes. She could not even remember a time when Peach had been particularly pleasant towards her. The Mushroom princess was so wrapped up in Rio's thoughts that she actually saw the Mushroom princess far away, conversing with Jeka. Scowling, Rio started to back away, twisting her head towards the direction she intended to walk before she slammed into something very hard.

"Ow!" she complained, rubbing her nose. "I'm so sorry! I've been bumping into everybody all day, I'm just very, very clumsy, please don't mind me!" she cringed, closing her eyes.

"Don't say sorry," a faintly amused voice responded, making her eyes pop open. She knew _that_ voice.

"Ike?" she asked, and was faintly startled to find her cheeks growing very hot.

"You sound way too surprised to see me," he noted, an eyebrow raised.

"N-no, it's just that ah..." Rio shook her head, trying not to think how good he looked with that eyebrow arched up and said, "I didn't think..."

"You tied your hair up," he observed, cutting her off.

"Yes, that is because..." Rio said. _Why am I so flustered?_

But before she could clear her jumbled thoughts, he took a step closer and reached one of his muscular arms over her neck, making all coherent thoughts leave. She took in a deep breath, taking in his masculine scent. She could sense that he had been training hard before he'd been called here. _Even without cologne he smells so nice..._ He was touching her hair now, caressing it, it felt like, before she felt her hair come undone from the bun she had tied it to and it tumbled down over her shoulders. His hand moved down her hair, trapping a section between his fingers. He held the lock to his face as if he were about to graze his lips over it, before letting it drop over her shoulders.

"Much better," he murmured slyly, smiling at the expression of shock, and pleasure that flushed her face. "Though," he added in a much more conversational tone, "A lot longer since I saw it last."

Somebody cleared their throat behind Rio, effectively ruining the moment and the angel whirled around, her long, pink hair whipping Ike in the face. A very angry Peach with a confused Jeka stood there. She strode over to Ike.

"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed to Ike who looked abashed.

"What's going on?" Rio whispered to Jeka who shrugged.

"I have no idea, but that Peach sure knows what feisty means."

_Gross_... Rio couldn't help thinking. Her expression must have showed on her face because Jeka laughed.

"I think you're jealous," he sang under his breath.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped, turning to face Peach who had slid an arm around Ike's waist, effectively making her jaw drop.

_What is going on here?_

"So sorry you couldn't be here to hear the news, though I thought Ike may have informed you since you two are _such_ great friends," she said. "But Ike and I are in a relationship right now, which means one thing," she said, seemingly unaware of Rio's crestfallen face. "Back _off._" And with that she steered Ike away from Rio, who could not believe what she'd just heard.

"Yikes," Jeka muttered. "The woman's definitely feisty. She could have fooled me though, I thought she was coming onto me for a second."

_I don't get it... I thought Ike liked me..._ Rio couldn't help thinking. Ice seemed to be spreading over her heart, followed by a slow, deep and painful ache.

"Rio?" a voice asked. It was Cammy. "Are you okay?"

"Not right now, Cammy," Rio said, trying to swallow her tears. "I... I think I'm going to head to bed early." Saying so, she rushed off.

"What happened?" Cammy wondered, her hands playing with a bright red tie.

Jeka shook his head in a sympathetic way. "Looks like she just got her heart broken."

Cammy cocked her head at Rio's retreating figure before looking at Peach and Ike who were facing away from her, holding hands. She didn't know Rio that well, but she already considered her a friend and she was thinking about ways to make the both of them pay. Before she could delve more into this thought however, a large hand clamped over her shoulder, making her squeak.

"My tie, you little squirt!" a humongous ape thundered. Jeka turned around, his eyes widening at Donkey Kong. The ape was larger in person, and his normally friendly face held a look of impatience.

"Cammy! Couldn't you have stolen Jigglypuff's flower instead?" Jeka said.

"What's the fun in that?" Cammy asked, nonchalantly. She grinned mischievously at Donkey Kong and asked. "Are you looking for something?"

"Yes, you little imp. My tie!"

"Your what? I haven't seen it," Cammy giggled, hiding it behind her back. DK growled and bodily lifted the little girl in the air, making her scream in delight.

"DK! Put that girl down!" Captain Falcon ordered. Next to him stood ROB and Brandon who didn't seem all that surprised that Cammy was already in some sort of trouble.

DK sheepishly put the girl down, but not before nicking the tie back.

"Can't you stay two minutes without getting into trouble?" Brandon sighed, running a hand through his hair and looking at the little girl.

"No," Cammy stated flatly, annoyed that Brandon was sounding very parent-like.

Brandon seemed taken aback at Cammy's sudden change in attitude. _What did I say?_ he thought to himself, puzzled. Then he shrugged to himself and turned back to Captain Falcon who was explaining the way ROB functioned to him. ROB as a robot was very fascinating to Brandon, and Jeka, who normally wasn't into this stuff, also stopped to listen as well.

"ROB may have an excellent artificial intelligence to speak for himself and stuff which includes emotion, loyalty and all workings of things only exclusive to humans, but that still doesn't mean you can't reprogram him to do different things, like obey only you. Tabuu registered it this way so that if his host of ROBs ever rebelled against him, he could make them robots. Fortunately, the only ROB who survived the Subspace Emissary, otherwise known as the Ancient Minister, was strong enough to rebel."

"Wait, that's the Ancient Minister?" Jeka asked abruptly, looking at the robot, who in turn faced him.

"Yes, not many people know that, and ROB prefers that nobody call him that name anymore." ROB bowed his head in silent agreement. "Most people think that ROB is just some minion that we experimented on to become more powerful and to join our side. But this ROB is really the Ancient Minister, who joined us once he realized that all his minions were dying at the expense of Tabuu's dreams."

"Interesting," Brandon said. "I never knew that. I'd like to study ROB a lot more in depth someday." Mathematics, the sciences and engineering had always fascinated Brandon and right now, he was looking at a leap into the future regarding artificial intelligence. The prospect of taking an in-depth look at ROB was quite fascinating.

But Cammy didn't think so. She yawned widely, causing the Smashers to look at her. "I think its bed time for this one," Jeka said, smirking. He strolled away.

Cammy protested, "No! I'm not sleepy!" she said, but she could feel her eyelids were growing heavier and heavier.

"I could put her to sleep. I'm pretty sure it's time for the Smasher children to go to bed too. You'll be sleeping with them, of course," Zelda said, popping in on the conversation. She'd met Cammy beforehand and like with most children, Zelda had adored the little girl and the girl liked her too. Zelda proffered her hand and Cammy sleepily took it.

"I'll join you too," Link offered.

Zelda smiled, "Thank you, Link." Together they walked out the hall, but not before Drey came between them.

"Princess Dreygon!" Zelda said, surprised. Though Zelda was pleasant with most people, there was something she did not like about this dragon princess from the moment she'd met her.

"Please, call me Drey," Drey responded, charmingly, but her crystal blue eyes were centered on Link. "I was wondering if I could accompany you as well... To of course get to know you better." _And also so that Zelda and Link aren't alone. Who knows what might happen?_ Drey thought. _I have to be good friends with Link! I just have to, before Zelda steals him away._

Link smiled at Drey, making her heart beat faster. "It's fine. You are always welcome to join us. How do you like the Mansion so far?"

"I love it! It is amazing, although quite different from my home. I do miss it though, as I am sure you do yours," she said.

"I miss my home a lot," Link said wistfully. "Ordon will always be my home. But I get to visit during the holidays, so it isn't too bad, plus I have people here who remind me of home," he concluded, smiling at Zelda who blushed, but smiled back.

_Ha, take that, Drey!_ Zelda thought smugly to herself.

"I suppose that's something," Drey said reluctantly. "Though your backgrounds are, I am sure very different. After all, Zelda is a princess and hails from a different province, and you are from Ordon." The smile on Zelda's face slid off right off.

_Ha! Score one for me. Zelda thinks she can best me. She's not even close!_

"But aren't you also a Princess? I'm sure your upbringing is far more different from Link's than mine is," Zelda countered hotly.

"That seems true," Link admitted, though he was clueless to the sudden rivalry that seemed to spark up between the two princesses.

"I'm not your traditional princess!" Drey snapped, causing Link to give her a strange look. She felt her white stone begin to glow and forced herself to calm down. It would not do to show them her true power. Not to Link anyway. "What I meant to say is that I wasn't born in a palace amongst nobles and such," she began. "Dragons raised me and I am one of them," she finished.

There was an uneasy silence.

"A-A dragon you say?" Zelda said nervously, and Drey was pleased that the Hylian princess seemed scared.

"Not one, many," she couldn't help bragging.

"I'm sure you'd make a quite formidable opponent," Link said, smiling serenely. "You already have Zelda frightened!"

"I'm not scared!" Zelda protested. She was now carrying a sleeping Cammy whose eyes tightened in annoyance at Zelda's voice who'd momentarily gone loud. _The Triforce is on my side..._ she thought to herself, trying to calm herself. _She cannot hurt me._

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Zack and Ri had made a game of who could meet the most Smashers in ten minutes but by the end of it it seemed like Zack had won.<p>

"I got the Mario brothers, Zelda and Sheik, which counts as two characters by the way," Zack added.

"Does not!"

"Does too! Anyway I also managed to meet Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, Pokemon Trainer and Falco."

"Jigglypuff doesn't even count if you can't understand the Pokemon!" Ri whined. "So that means just six for you."

"More like eight, because I'm such a charmer," Zack winked. "How about you?"

Ri sighed. She knew she lost. "I got Toon Link, the Ice Climbers, which counts as two characters by the way," she said, mimicking Zack's earlier line. "Lucas, Olimar and Yoshi."

"So six then. Sounds like I'm the winner with eight!" Zack did a little victory dance that made Ri laugh.

"So now comes my reward," Zack said. "Since I won and all."

"We never discussed rewards and losses!" she protested. "This is unfair!"

"Don't worry, Ri. I won't collect... Yet." He snickered evilly.

"What is it you're collecting?" Ri asked, frowning.

"You'll see!" Zack said, humming. "Shall we get some food?"

"The food here is delicious," Joeb said, turning up out of nowhere, his mouth full of food. He was eating what seemed like a large potion of honey baked ham.

"Thanks for the input, Joeb," Zack said. He proffered his arm to Ri, who took it, and together they headed off to the buffet table where not much food seemed to be. Along the way Lucas joined them as well, somebody that Ri thought fondly of.

"Do you mind if I join you?" the timid boy asked.

"We mind very much," Zack said which made the young boy pale.

"He's just joking," Ri assured him. "Come along with us." The four loaded their plates with chicken, gravy and rice before heading back to the table where Joeb was sitting. Joeb had already started conversation with Pit, who was also sitting at the table.

"Any chance you could you take a peek at the heaven registry, and see if my name's on it?" Joeb asked, jokingly.

"It uh... That's not my job... My job is to protect Palutena..."

"Then why did Palutena send you here?" Joeb pressed him.

"Because she doesn't need it anymore. She sent me to watch over the Smashers so that I'd know how the human world is like," Pit explained. He suddenly noticed Ri's feather behind her ear and reached over the touch it. _Surely it could not be..._ But before he could touch it Ri swiped his hand away angrily.

"Clearly you don't understand boundaries," she snapped. "I'll thank you not to touch any part of me." Startled, Pit dropped his hand away.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

"It's fine," Ri said, but her tone was anything but fine. "Just don't go near my feather," she said, icily. Zack raised his eyebrows, surprised at Ri's abrupt change in attitude, but he decided not to say question it.

An awkward silence followed her little outburst. Joeb broke it by saying, "So... Anyone heard of Kersplancho's Logistics?"

"I think this is probably the third time I've heard you say that," Zack said rolling his eyes, but glad that the silence had ended.

"W-what's Kersplancho's Logistics?" Lucas asked, trying to forget the little outburst he'd just witnessed, for he liked Ri very much but Pit was frowning. There was something quite off about Ri, and the way she'd yelled right when he was about to get that feather. If that feather was what Pit _thought_ it was then... He'd have to keep a more careful eye on this girl who seemed amiable at first glance.

* * *

><p>Elizebeth was alone as usual. She hadn't bothered to get to know any of the Smashers because she knew that probably none of them would really appreciate her. She was quite used to being alone so it never really bothered her. Much.<p>

She had taken to exploring the Mansion instead and was quite interested in the many rooms she found that she might be using over the course of the year. She had already visited the kitchens, where the cooks had ushered her out hurriedly. She'd seen the main hall, had walked up the grand staircase to view study rooms, gaming rooms and rooms with many beds that weren't occupied. She supposed that these beds were meant for them.

She had now wandered down the basement, where Mr. Game and Watch and Pikachu seemed to come out from earlier. The basement was dimly lit by a singular flickering light bulb that shadowed most of the rather high ceiling and the corners of the basement. There was the steady rhythm of something going _drip! Drip! Drip!_

_Looks like there's a leak somewhere here that they need to get fixed_ she thought to herself. She smiled to herself, noting that even something as perfect and grand as Smash Mansion had its flaws. She listened to the dripping noises and discovered that it belonged to a leaky faucet, next to a large deep freezer. She turned the knob the whole way, and though the water stopped dripping the dripping noise still persisted. _Drip! Drip! Drip!_

_There's more than one leak?_ She thought to herself, confused. She ignored it, and opened the deep freezer, but there was nothing in there either except for loads of meat.

Uninterested, she began to walk deeper into the basement until she felt a drop on her forehead. She reached for her head and felt something wet there and brought it to her face. Though the basement was dank and dim, she could tell that the liquid that had fell on her head was dark and not clear. _This isn't water._

A drop plopped onto her head again. Horrified, she took several steps away, and looked for a crack in the wall that was causing the liquid to fall. Instead she saw something quite different.

Sean Whitefield was hanging from the ceiling, his face purpled, his eyes popping out. A rope was tied around his neck, and his hands were tightly bound behind his back. The rope around his neck was attached to a hook on the ceiling. His button down shirt had been ripped open, and somebody had taken a knife to his bare chest, and carved words out. Blood was still dripping from these wounds, gently, steadily, yet the message was still readable:

**YOU **

**ALL **

**ARE**

** NEXT**

* * *

><p><strong>First murder down! I originally hadn't planned a murder to be this soon, but I thought, what the heck? Why not. So here's the first murder!<strong>

**Once again, I'm sorry that I took forever to update. I do hope this chapter made up for it. Please review to tell me what you thought! Bahbyeee**


	4. Investigations

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related. Just a fan of the franchise.**

**Thanks for all the reviews, guys! I love you all!**

** I was hoping to finish this chapter a little earlier, but I've been swamped with Calculus and Organic Chemistry II exams! D8 I've gotten some down time to finish this though, so I hope you all like it!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Elizebeth, please come in." Master Hand's disembodied voice floated through the waiting room from the speaker where the dark haired woman sat. It was four o'clock in the morning and Elizebeth was beginning to feel hungry. A headache was pounding through her brain relentlessly. She touched a large bruise on her forehead that was already starting to purple and winced in pain. Her eyes snapped up to Ness who had exited the room. He refused to look at her on his way out, something that she found discouraging. She felt like her heart had dropped a couple of inches. <em>But what else is new? I have no friends so why would this guy even try to defend me?<em>

She tucked her hair behind her left ear anxiously and walked towards the office, her legs feeling like lead. She paused before the door, hesitant, then she opened the door towards the Hand's office.

Master Hand's office was spacious. There were two walls on either side with bookshelves crammed full of books and a large desk in the middle with a couple of plush chairs facing it and a large, leather one with high back behind it. The wall facing the door wasn't a wall; It was a giant window. There was an impeccably dressed man in a black tailcoat with long blond hair which was tied in a blue ribbon staring out that window, his hands clasped behind his back. They were gloved. Upon hearing the door shut the man turned around to face Elizebeth.

"Please, have a seat," he said in a quiet voice. His eyes were black, she noted. He was clean shaven with delicate, fine features. "You must be shocked to not see me as a hand and as a man. This is my true form, but I can only be this way in this office. Perhaps I will tell that story for another more pleasant time."

She took a seat and swallowed thickly.

"I have already interrogated Ness. Now it is your turn to reveal your side of the story. I must caution you though. If you lie to me, I shall know as I consider Ness to be a far more trustful person than you," he warned.

Elizebeth nodded, but she could not speak. There seemed to be something lodged within her throat. She tried to think about what happened after she found Sean.

_"S-sean?" she asked, tremblingly. The body just swayed there, its message dripping onto the carpet.  
><em>

_She stumbled away from the body, and accidentally crashed into a tower of chairs, sitting on each other, which swayed precariously._

_"No, no, no..." She whispered to herself, trying to stabilize the chairs. But instead they swung backward and with a massive crash, they all fell to the floor. _

_She winced at the noise. Somebody _had_ to have heard that. She needed to get help, but as she turned around she already found somebody. _

_It was Ness. He asked. "What are you doing here?"_

_"I-I..." Elizebeth stammered. Then accusingly she asked, "What are _you_ doing here?" She had a sudden thought that perhaps Ness murdered Sean._

_"I had to use the bathroom, when I heard a crash. I thought I should investigate," Ness said defensively. His eyes roved throughout the basement, staring at the mess she'd made critically. "I suppose we should clean this up."_

_"Wait but..." she said, then caught herself. She was about to tell him about Sean but she stopped, thinking. Was she really supposed to buy that bathroom story? If it were her, she would run to get help, not investigate by herself. Maybe if she acted like she never spotted Sean, he would spare her and not kill her for discovering him. If she drew attention that she knew about the body, he might kill her too, effectively silencing her._

_Once the chairs had been stacked Ness turned to Elizebeth. "You know, you guys aren't all that bad." He smiled. "We all didn't want you to come at first," he confessed. "But I think living with you will be bearable. In fact, I'm sure you all will be gone before we all get too annoyed!"_

_ Elizebeth shivered at his last sentence. She couldn't help it. She looked at the corpse.  
><em>

_"What's wrong?" Ness said, following her gaze. You couldn't really tell from where they stood that it was a hung body, but Ness walked closer to investigate and then screamed._

_"What the hell is wrong with you?" he screamed again, and turned around._

_"I didn't do it! I promise!" Elizebeth said, hurriedly, but Ness was livid with fear and disgust. Without warning, he pulled out a yo-yo from his pocket and yanked it hard in her direction. It hit her on the head with a resounding_ thwack!_ She cried out in pain, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was Ness's fearful eyes.  
><em>

The man sighed after hearing her side of the story. "You thought Ness committed the murder, so that's why you didn't tell him? Are you aware that Ness is only a child of thirteen? What possible motive would a highly esteemed Smasher have to commit a murder? He's a first generation Smasher."

"I don't know," Elizebeth mumbled. All of a sudden, her theory sounded really stupid. "He said that all of the Smashers didn't want us here," she mumbled as her last line of defense.

Master Hand paused at that information before delicately lacing his fingers together, covering the bottom half of his face. Then he said abruptly with a frown, "You may leave. I would recommend you not venture outside your room for today. It could raise... Certain unwanted attentions."

Elizebeth didn't need to be told twice. She got up to leave but before she could Master Hand said, "Mark my words, Elizebeth. We _will_ catch whoever is responsible for this. And when we do, this person will pay ten times more than his victim did."

She shivered at his words. "Understood, sir."

* * *

><p>The news of Sean's death had already circulated Smash Mansion before Master Hand had given the announcement. Ness had told everybody in the children's room about it, and the Ice Climbers had told the Pokemon who in turn told everybody else. Cammy, upon hearing the news told all the Chosen Few and so nobody was surprised when he floated into the hall at breakfast to give them the grave news. The only person who had not heard the announcement was Elizebeth who was not present at breakfast and there was a lot of muttering going on about her absence.<p>

"The chick's obviously the one who murdered him," Jeka observed, spooning into his scrambled eggs. "What was she doing down in the basement anyway?"

"Yeah, she was pretty unfriendly too," Brandon noted. "But what could she have against Sean?"

"What did anyone have against Sean? Did anyone actually know the guy? Was anybody annoyed by him?" Ri asked. She took a bite of a buttered croissant. "Why would anyone murder _Sean_? I think he was the only guy that nobody disagreed with because none of us _knew_ that much about him."

There was a silence as everybody pondered Ri's question. Then a hesitant Cammy broke the silence. "What if it's because we aren't wanted here?"

Everybody turned towards Cammy. "What is it that you are trying to say?" Lynn asked slowly.

Zack eagerly responded for Cammy. "Why would we murder people within our group? It doesn't make sense. What if it isn't Elizebeth, but it's actually one of the Smashers? I mean think about it, we have a lot more to lose than they do. If we were killed off, nobody will care because well..." He chuckled darkly, "We're nobody. But," he added. "If it was a Smasher, this would be covered up because they're untouchable. It's bad for press, so our murders would be hushed up."

All of the Chosen Few at their table turned towards the Smasher's table suspiciously. Drey was the only one who was sitting amongst them and she was sitting in between Link and a slightly angry Zelda.

"So, you think it's a Smasher?" Joeb asked, swiveling his eyes back to their own table. "I heard that they weren't in favor of us coming." He frowned, and drained a glass of orange juice.

"That's not a good enough reason," Brandon argued bluntly. "I still say it was Elizebeth. She got caught, so she tried pinning it on Ness. I just can't see any of them doing something this horrible."

"Are you kidding? Bowser, Ganondorf and Wolf are all evil enough to do it for starters," Jeka snorted.

"And Peach," Rio added unexpectedly, stabbing her sausage with venom. She had very little to contribute to the conversation. Her eyes were red rimmed, and all of the Chosen Few knew that she had been crying last night, but nobody knew what to say to console her.

"Still though," Ri pressed, after a dour period of silence as the guests contemplated their situation. "Why Sean?"

Though everybody was keen on talking about Sean's death, nobody had a definite answer to that question.

* * *

><p>"They're all staring at us," King Dedede muttered. "I don't like it."<p>

"Just ignore them," Metaknight said calmly.

The Smashers were muttering amongst themselves, not knowing what to make of the recent events. It was Peach who started the conversation.

"Who do you think did it?"

Yoshi responded, "It was definitely Elizebeth. She's on the top of my list at least."

"You have a list?" Kirby asked, amused while he shoveled down food.

"Just as long as they kill their kind and not ours, I don't care," Bowser growled.

"Bowser!" Olimar said, visibly shocked. "Some of them happen to be very nice. That Ri girl seemed really friendly."

Pit and Lucas exchanged an uneasy glance. Lucas chose not to say anything. He still did not know what to make of Ri's outburst. Pit couldn't keep his mouth shut however. "She _seems_ friendly but I'm sure she has her skeletons she'd like to keep in the closet too..." he murmured darkly. With that, he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Samus asked, puzzled.

"I have some business to take care of," Pit said, frowning. He began to leave. Lucas watched his retreating figure, hesitant. He had a good idea where Pit was headed but he didn't exactly know whether or not he wanted to follow the angel or not. He was afraid of what he might find out.

"You gonna go, kid?" a gruff voice asked. Startled, Lucas turned around to see Snake leaning against his chair with a toothpick in between his lips. His arms were crossed across his chest and he was also watching Pit leave the hall. "I know you want to go and whether or not you go, I think I'm gonna go too. Christ, I wish they hadn't banned smoking in the Mansion. I could use a cigarette." With that last sentence, the agent spat out his toothpick and followed Pit out.

Lucas stared at Snake's muscular body and after a second's hesitation, he stood up determinedly and followed the gruff man.

* * *

><p>"You don't need more muscle, man," Marth said. They were both at the gym, about to start a work out. "You can wield a two handed sword with <em>one<em> hand. You need to work on your evasiveness."

"You make me sound like a Pokemon. What am I supposed to do? Learn Double Team?" Ike complained.

"No, but as a friend, I'm telling you that your reflexes are a bit off. You'll do a lot better this year in the tournament if you can dodge and run faster. It's a bad weakness," Marth explained.

"My brawn covers for that," Ike said stubbornly. He picked up an extremely heavy dumbbell in one hand.

"It won't if you want to place first. You're a heavy fighter Ike, which means that your jumping skills are awful. But you're also slow too! Do you want to know what Fox, Pikachu, Zelda, and I all have in common?"

Ike sighed, putting the dumbbell back in its respective place. He knew the answer to this question. "They were all the past four champions."

"Exactly," Marth said. "And all of them are extremely quick. The only reason Zelda won was because she switched to Sheik when she was high in damage which was a very smart move. That way nobody could hit her. All of them are quick. People with brute strength like Bowser always place lower."

"Roy wasn't slow," Ike countered. "Neither was Pichu and Mewtwo and they all placed last."

"Yeah, well Pichu practically eliminated himself with all his electric attacks," Marth said. "And Mewtwo did not train as much as the rest of us because he wanted to see more of the world. Roy..." He thought about his best friend momentarily. "He didn't want to be at the Mansion anymore." He thought about at the state he'd last seen Roy. Everybody who had known and lived with the Smashers who had left were forbidden to talk about what really happened to them. The official story was that they had all placed last in the tournament and were fired because of it. Marth hated to lie to Ike, but he privately felt that the lie was a lot better than the truth.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Ike said, oblivious to Marth's deep thoughts.

"The punching bag," Marth said pointing at the punching bag in a separate, glass room. "Every time you punch it, you have to dodge it as well because it will swing right back you. I started off there before I moved on to kickboxing with Link."

Ike shrugged his shoulders and moved towards the punching bag, silently closing the glass door behind him. He saw Marth head off to stretch, before tackling a machine that worked out his abs. _Probably working them out for his herd of fangirls_ he thought to himself.

He strode up to the punchbag, staring at the thing apprehensively. _Here goes nothing_ he thought, putting his fists up to his face and assuming a fighter's pose.

But scarcely had he landed a blow on the punching bag when a girl with long pink hair strode up to the punching bag and began to punch it furiously.

"R-Rio?" he asked, but she had a set, grim expression on her face. He noticed that her teeth were clenched as she struck quick yet furious blows on the punching back and dodged perfectly every time the bag came swinging back at her. She ducked low, and swept upward, kicking at the bag and then sidestepped. It was almost like she was dancing with the punching bag with the way she was sidestepping, ducking and punching and Ike was entranced.

"Wow," he said quietly to himself, breaking her concentration. The punching bag smacked her square in the face. With a cry she held her hands to her face, blocking it from view. "Are you alright?" He asked, worriedly.

Rio took her hands away from her face and though her eyes looked murderous and her lips were tight she answered, "Everything is perfectly fine." But it was not. Her nose was bleeding.

"Your nose," he said, stepping forward to swipe the blood off her nose but she blocked his hand using her wrist.

"I don't need your help," she said. She dragged the heel of her palm past her nose and inspected the smear of blood on her hands. She looked like she was about to cry again.

"What's the matter?" he asked gently. "Does it hurt?"

"Nothing hurts!" She yelled, but even as she said it her eyes were welling up with tears. She turned her face away so he wouldn't see her cry but Ike knew Rio so he placed his hand on her cheek and tilted it so that her face was towards his again.

_Gods, why is she crying?_ he thought to himself. But a part of him already knew ever since yesterday when Peach announced they were dating. "Rio, what's wrong? Come on," he added, whispering. "You can tell me anything."

"I can't tell you," she said, trying to stifle the tears. It was mortifying that she was crying in front of him. _Control yourself, Rio!_ she told herself sternly.

"Why not? You said that you could tell me anything the last time we spent time together. What's changed?"

"You tell me," she said, accusingly. She threw a towel across her shoulders and picked up her pink water bottle.

"Am I supposed to read your mind now?" Ike asked, a little annoyed.

Rio leaned close up to his face. "You don't need to read my mind to figure out what's wrong." Then she realized what she said and amended her statement quickly. "Not that there is anything wrong." She whirled around, and her long ponytail whipped Ike in the face.

Ike stood there confused for one long moment. _Women..._ he thought to himself, annoyed.

_I heard that._ The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Ike. Then he placed it.

_Gah! Lucario, get out of my head!_

_I cannot if your emotions are always that loud. Be cautious, warrior. I detect a dark aura in that one..._

* * *

><p>"Wow!" Brandon exclaimed. The short teen was bent over ROB. The robot had been cut open and Jeka, Captain Falcon, Samus and Fox were all peering inside. There were a jumble of wires and circuits. "Look at all of this! I could spend days in here!"<p>

Captain Falcon chuckled. "Yes, it is quite advanced in here. It's actually funny, but this all isn't just pure technology you know."

"What do you mean?" Jeka asked frowning. "This all looks like wires and electricity to me."

"Yes, but have you ever noticed that ROB never needs to charge except at night?" Samus asked. "It was something Fox and I discovered when we searched ROB's insides to see if Tabuu had placed any bugs inside him. ROB isn't just infused with the latest technology. We used NMR spectroscopy and we found a lot of different carbon rings in here."

"Carbon rings?" Brandon said, a little confused. "But what could that mean... Wait are you saying that ROB is... Alive?"

"Wait a second. Time out, I'm confused!" Jeka shouted.

"Carbon is always present in living matter. They're basically the building blocks of life," Brandon said impatiently.

"Precisely," the anthropomorphic fox acknowledged. "I don't know what Tabuu did, but whatever it was he made it so that ROB was sort of alive. He's almost like a cyborg, except he's more technology than he is organic."

"Though ROB is somewhat alive, it is still very easy to shut that part of him down so that only his robot part functions," Captain Falcon explained. "So ROB can function as a robot without the life within him, but if you were to mess up his circuits he could not function which is why he is more robot than human."

At that precise moment, Samus's wristwatch beeped. She pressed a button on it and Master Hand's voice permeated through it. "Samus, you're required down at the lab."

"What for?" Samus asked, frowning.

"Your assistance is required. We have completed Mr. Sean Whitefield's autopsy and we would like to inform you of the results."

Brandon and Jeka exchanged looks. "Right away," Samus said. She pressed another button, ending communication with the gloved hand. She faced the boys and said, "Sorry to cut this short, I will be right back."

Brandon was curious to hear what Master Hand had to say but didn't know how to excuse himself. Luckily, Jeka intervened. "Brandon, that reminds me," he said. "Didn't you have to call your mom before lunch?"

_My mom? Couldn't he have come up with a better excuse?_ But Brandon appeared to act surprised. "I almost forgot! She's going to kill me! I'll be right back!" and saying so, he capered down the hall where Samus had gone. It didn't take long for him to locate the lab room; It was on the top floor of the Mansion - He knew this already from studying the Mansion's blueprints before he boarded the plane. He located a drinking glass that somebody had left and held it up against the door and put his ear against it.

"...I don't understand. You told me he died from being hung," Samus's voice said, her voice muffled from the door separating them both.

"Well yes, he did. Indications show that he was indeed strangled. But it appears that before he died the murderer carved these letters onto his chest before hanging him," Master Hand said. "But there's something even more troubling..."

"What could be even more troubling than that?" Peach asked. Brandon surmised she was in there because she often helped Mario clean up patients.

"It would appear that his heart is missing," Mario said nervously.

There was a silence. Then Samus spoke up hesitantly. "You mean figuratively, right?"

"No, literally. His heart is gone. We realized that there were badly sewn stitches either because the murderer was in a hurry or did not know how to do stitches. Either way, they were running down his chest so we opened them and found that his chest had been cracked and the heart had been violently ripped from its arteries and veins."

Peach gave a groan of disgust. "That's sick," she muttered. Brandon was inclined to agree.

"So why did you call me here then?" Samus asked dryly, cutting the princess off. "I'm no doctor and no expert on hearts."

"No," Master Hand agreed. "But you are one of the most trusted Smashers here. You are also an exceptional bounty hunter which means I'm putting you on the case. Find out who is behind this."

"In order to do that, I'd have to search their files," Samus interrupted. "Something you expressly forbade."

"Dammit, Samus!" Master Hand swore, making Brandon jump. "Do you think I would have asked for you specifically if we could look into their profiles? Anybody can read a stupid file, but we can't actually look into the files. We signed an agreement with each of our guests that we would not pry in their lives unless necessary."

"And you think that an innocent victim doesn't make this very necessary to do a thorough background check?" Samus interrupted. Her voice had lost its calm yet wry tone. Now she sounded frustrated and irritated. "You're making this unnecessarily harder on me when our answer could lie right in those files."

There was a long pause. Then Master Hand said, "My mind is made up, Miss Aran. Try to find out who did this without the help of those files otherwise I won't be a happy person." The last sentence sounded like a dark threat. Brandon shivered at the tone of his voice. It sounded like the conversation was finished, so Brandon straightened himself and put the glass back where he found it.

His thoughts were whirling with theories and suspicions. He was no longer thinking about ROB, but rather about Sean. None of it made sense. Why would Sean's heart be missing? He thought back to Ri's question she'd asked repeatedly at breakfast.

_Why Sean?_

He felt like the answer was right in front of him, but he lacked the necessary tools or knowledge to figure it all out. He needed answers, he realized. And there was no way he was going to get them by just sitting here.

It was at that moment that he drew this conclusion that Jeka came towards him, panting. "I came as soon as I could," the white-haired teenager said, trying to catch his breath. "Captain Falcon and the others were summoned away for practice, so I ran here. What... Happened?"

Brandon bit his lip, surveying the other boy warily. Could Jeka be trusted? It only took him a second to decide if he could trust the boy or not.

"They did an autopsy on Sean and you won't believe what they found missing," Brandon blurted. He knew he could trust the older boy. After everything that he'd seen the past two days, he felt like he connected with Jeka a lot more than the rest of the Chosen Few and the Smashers.

"What did they find?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow raised.

"They found stitches running down his chest and when they opened the stitches they found his heart missing."

Jeka stopped in his tracks. "Heart... Missing?" he asked. He ran a hand through his hair. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would the heart be missing...?" he wondered aloud.

Brandon shrugged. "Beats me. But I think it's time we found some answers."

Jeka still looked nonplussed. Nevertheless, he asked, "Any leads?"

"Not any good ones," Brandon admitted. "But I figure we have to start somewhere, right? And I think we should start with Elizebeth. She's the only person who we can identify as a suspect."

A slow smile spread over Jeka's face. "Then I say, let's go find this chick."

* * *

><p>"We might have to break the door down," Ri sighed. "If that's the case and a Smasher asks us what happened, what should we say?" The girl reached up to touch the white feather that was tucked underneath her ear. Reassured that it was safe and sound, she turned to face her partner in crime - Zack.<p>

"A wounded rhino rampaged through the office?" Zack suggested weakly. Her movements caused him to once again study the feather underneath Ri's ear.

Ri smiled in spite of herself. Even though Zack's jokes were sometimes pretty lame, she had to admit she found his presence comforting. He knew how to lighten a situation and put her at ease. And she needed to relax. Already she was thinking about not going through the plan. However, her desire to figure out what happened easily outstripped her fear. Though she wasn't particularly good at solving mysteries, Ri was the kind of person who loved hearing about them. It was the first time she'd ever been involved in an actual mystery and so even though she found herself in a dangerous situation, she was slightly thrilled at the process of being in the midst of finding out the solution.

They approached the destination of their choice soon - It was Master Hand's office. But they didn't need to worry about getting the door open as Zack soon discovered.

"This door. It's unlocked," Zack announced when he tried the knob. "Somebody's already been here."

Ri frowned. Somebody already beat them here? But who could it be? "Well then," she said lightly. "It looks like they did the hard part. Let's go in shall we? Better be quiet about it. I want to know whose inside."

Zack opened the door carefully and noted that nobody was here. "Nobody's here," he called out, frowning.

"That's weird... I wonder who it was," Ri wondered to herself. She stepped into the office warily. It was really quite a beautiful office. "I guess we should start _mmph!_"

"Ri?" Zack asked urgently, hearing her muffled scream. He spun around but before he could get a good look at the raven haired girl, something shocked him rendering him unconscious. He blacked out before he hit the floor.

* * *

><p>"This is boring!" Cammy whined. "Why are we even here?" She was with Toon Link, the Ice Climbers and Ness. She had bonded with them all overnight, with the exception of Ness who wouldn't say where he was. The Smash kids were hiding in the audience seats that were overlooking the Fountain of Dreams.<p>

"Shh!" Nana hushed furiously. "We're spying."

"What are we supposed to be looking at?" Cammy asked, annoyed.

Toon Link pointed at the scene unfolding in the battlefield. Two Princesses, the Hero of Time and Joeb were on the actual battlefield. Lynn was looking at them in the control room. She was supposed to be controlling what items came on the battlefield and keeping score.

As usual, Zelda and Drey were looking daggers at each other. Joeb and Link on the other hand seemed oblivious to the tension going on between the two girls.

"This is ridiculous," Zelda snapped. "Link has always been my partner when we've done team battles."

"I've never seen Zelda so angry," Popo observed thoughtfully.

"I'll tell you what's ridiculous," Drey said, who seemed to be trying hard to control her own anger. "It seems really unfair to have two veteran warriors pitted against two newbies, like us."

"Is that what you want to call yourself?" Zelda asked icily. "A newbie?"

"Can we stop arguing, please?" Joeb asked, visibly annoyed. "I just want to fight."

"You know," Link said. "Drey's right. We're far more experienced than either of them. We'd be more evenly matched if one of us paired up with one of them."

Zelda glared at Link, but her expression was already softening just by looking at him. She couldn't stay at her Hero for too long. "Fine," she conceded. "Lynn, you can decide whose teaming up with who."

Silently, the Triforce holder of Wisdom was hoping that the Pokemorph would pair Link with Joeb while Drey was hoping that she would team up with Link.

_What do I do?_ Lynn thought nervously. She hadn't been paying attention to the squabble below. Ever since Lucario had approached her, she was thinking about what he'd said and his words were setting her off edge. She only had to look towards Sean's death to see that Lucario's predictions and insinuations were proving true. But what did that mean for herself?

"I do believe I'd like to see Link and Joeb versus Princess Drey and Princess Zelda" she said, speaking over the announcer.

Drey suppressed a groan. _This blows. But there are always other ways to get Link... The more troubling situation is how I'm supposed to get along with with this stuck up Princess? We are going to lose if we can't cooperate. But there's no way I'm getting along with her!_ She glanced at Zelda and could tell that the Princess of Hyrule was thinking the same thing.

"Are we ready to begin?" Lynn's voice echoed throughout the arena.

"Speaking of arenas why does the Fountain of Dreams still exist?" Cammy questioned. "I thought it was removed in Brawl."

"It was," Ness admitted, a little subdued. Cammy noted that Ness had dark circles under his eyes, and wondered why he looked so unwell. She wanted to cheer him up. "But they keep all the battlefields that aren't used as practice stages only."

"Ah," Cammy said, understanding. Cammy herself was not a fighter, but she enjoyed watching the games and Fountain of Dreams was one of her favorite stages. She admired its beauty. She'd been sorry to see it go. She turned her attention back to the stage where the match had already started. Zelda immediately bounded for Link and they circled around each other.

"Zelda, you can't take me on," Link laughed.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" she asked. "Do you think you're a beater fighter than me?" she teased.

"I don't think I am," Link said. He gave her a cocky grin. "I _know_ I am." With that, the swordsman drew his bow and aimed an arrow and fired. With a quick yell Zelda quickly summoned Nayru's Love which effectively blocked his swift arrow. She laughed. "Is that the best you can do?" Link merely grunted and ran after her, his sword glinting menacingly.

_If I can take care of Joeb first, I can go after Link too... That way I can prove to him that I'm a capable opponent!_ Drey thought to herself. She ran over to Joeb who had suddenly adopted a hard glare in his eyes. This surprised Drey. _That's pretty uncharacteristic of him..._ Drey didn't know Joeb too well, but she'd always pictured him as a lazy, affable person. The glint in his eyes however suggested otherwise and it made her feel downright uneasy. But she wasn't backing out. Not now. In fact, the look in Joeb's eyes made her strengthen her resolve to win.

She unsheathed her sword when she was less than fifteen feet away. It was long, probably as long as Marth's and it was made of dragonbone. She shivered. She loved her sword. It'd been a gift from home and it was a splendid thing to look at. Right now though, she barely had any time to admire her beloved sword. She slashed at Joeb expertly who dodged it with ease and kicked her in the arm. The kick was so swift and so unexpected that Drey had no time to parry it with her sword. She hissed in pain. _Dioclopse, this guy is strong! _Her arm was stinging, but she ignored it. _I am of the Dragons. Dragons don't feel pain._ She whipped her blonde hair back and thrust at Joeb with her sword who again dodged it, though just barely. The older man sprang backward and from seemingly nowhere he pulled out a rifle and aimed at her and fired.

This time Drey was ready and she stepped sideways to dodge it, though just barely. The bullet seared past her, cutting off a couple of strands of her blonde hair on its way through. It sailed towards Zelda who was currently trapped by Link's Hookshot and hit her in the back. She cried out in pain. In his shock, Link released her.

"What are you playing at?" she screamed at Drey who looked confused. "You're supposed to watch out for your team mate. You let that bullet come at me!"

"I didn't know you were there!" Drey said, her voice unapologetic. "Why don't you fend for yourself?"

"Fend for myself?" Zelda nearly yelled. "The point of a team battle is to work together! Haven't you seen any team matches?"

"The only teamwork I've seen involving you is the one where Link's always protecting you!" Drey shot back.

Zelda's eyes flashed dangerously. "You're calling me weak?"

"Girls, stop!" Link said, but none of them were listening to him at this point.

"Yeah, guess I am. You were only champion because of Sheik and because you got lucky," Drey sneered, her anger boiling.

"I would appreciate it if the match were more physical towards the opposite team," Lynn's polite voice intervened throughout the serene stadium. Joeb, with the same hardened look in his eye, growled in agreement.

"Joeb seems scary," Cammy commented. "I've never seen that look in his eye before."

"It does look strange," Ness murmured, frowning.

"Yeah? Well I had to work at Sheik. Nothing in life comes free and I learned that the hard way! You wouldn't understand the years of rigorous training I had to get to in order to become her! You on the other hand... You just get chosen by a dragon and all you do is have to get angry and..."

"You think it's that easy for me too?" Drey roared, making Joeb laugh.

"I never thought I'd see the day where princesses talk about how much harder their lives are," he said his voice full of mirth. That did it for Drey. She was shaking in anger.

"I think Drey finally snapped," Nana whispered.

The kids all watched in a mixture of fascination and horror at the shaking girl. She dropped to her knees and panted, looking at the floor, her eyes changing. _I tried so hard to stop it... But I can't now. It's too late._ She was transforming, growing whiter. She grew bigger and longer until she'd fully transformed into a beautiful yet dangerous white creature. The angry beast roared into Zelda's face who shook in fear.

"I can't believe it," Lynn said softly to herself. "Drey is..."

"A dragon?" Cammy and the other Smashers said at the same time, all astonished.

* * *

><p>Ri kicked and struggled against her captor. She'd never been good at fighting though. She'd once taken a self defense class but she hardly remembered what she had been taught. Panic's cold fingers were gripping at her throat, making it harder for her to breathe. She screamed against the hand that bound her but it came out muffled. She noted that the hand was large, masculine and the chest that she was pressed against was also quite muscular and therefore masculine.<p>

_Zack!_ she tried to search for her new found friend but the boy was nowhere to be seen. She'd heard something fall to the floor though and sincerely hoped it wasn't him. "Mmph!"

"Let her go!" a young boy's scared voice said.

Ri tried to say, "Lucas?" in shock but instead it came out as, "Oomphus?"

"Why should I?" a masculine voice at her ear growled.

"Saae?" she asked. She meant to say Snake, but she could barely open her mouth against his tight grip on her.

"She's... She's a friend!" Lucas stammered.

"She's no friend," another male voice declared. It was Pit and he stalked into her view, his blue eyes defiant. "Tell me Ri, what's your real story?" The angel leaned in close to Ri's face. She balked, and sank backward, further into Snake's chest.

"Calm down, angel boy, you're scaring the girl," Snake said. Pit didn't respond. His hand crept to her face, brushing her black hair back so he could grab the feather.

He shivered, closing his eyes.

She struggled violently then with all her might, and to her surprise, Snake let go. She drew her fist back and let it loose, connecting it with Pit's cheek. "Are you crazy?" she yelled.

"Don't make so much noise!" Snake cautioned. "We're all not supposed to be in here."

"Where's Zack?" she said loudly, ignoring his warning.

"Here," Lucas said behind them in a timid, apologetic tone. "Sorry. I accidentally shocked him. I thought... Well... I didn't want to get caught..."

Zack was stirring feebly. He reached for his bug net and drew it to his chest. "What happened? I feel like that rhino really did charge through the door," he said, wincing.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said, timidly. "It was my fault."

"You sure know your PK moves," Zack said, wryly. But he didn't seem mad at Lucas. He turned to face Snake and Pit. Pit was rubbing his jaw, gingerly. A red mark was starting to form there. "Why are you three even here?"

Then his eyes scoured the room to find an answer. His eyes landed on a bunch of manila files that lay behind Snake's feet. "What are those?" he asked, pointing. But it was Ri who answered. They were, after all, the reason that she had broken in the first place.

"Those are our background files."

* * *

><p><strong>This was a bit of a filler chapter, sorry guys, not much happened here compared to the last chapter. :\ But things have become a little more suspicious, and everybody's character seems to have a dark side to them with a couple of exceptions that I still need to get to. Hopefully more will happen in the next chapter, eh? Until then, please review with some feedback! I read every review and try to make the story better!<strong>

**And I must also apologize for not including some characters as much as the others. I sincerely wanted to, but the chapter was already becoming pretty long. All I can say is that each character will get their turn or their time to revel! Until then, stick around!  
><strong>

**Once again, I'm sorry that I took forever to update! Updates will be slower though since school's begun! Hope you all can bear with me!  
><strong>


	5. Background Checks

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related, nor the lovely OCs that are featured in this story. Just a fan of the franchise.**

* * *

><p>The dragon roared at Zelda and flapped its massive wings, nearly knocking the princess off her feet. Adrenaline raced through Zelda. <em>I can't face this...<em> An idea struck her. But_ my other half can..._ she thought to herself and suddenly a bright, white light emanated from within her completely engulfing her body before fading away. Where the princess once stood, a blonde, lithe ninja stood firmly against the ground.

"Sheik," Lynn breathed to herself up in the control room.

The ninja glared at the dragon with angry, amber eyes. These eyes showed no mercy.

"Looks like things are about to get ugly," Ness commented. "Zelda only transforms into Sheik when she feels either visibly threatened or by design."

"Something tells me this wasn't by design. She definitely didn't plan this," Toon Link said, watching Sheik. "We gotta help her!"

On the battlefield, the older Link was thinking along the same lines. He brandished his sword and dashed over to Sheik's aid. Joeb aimed his rifle carefully at the dragon. If the dragon did anything that threatened him, he was going to shoot it without hesitation.

The kid Smashers and Cammy ran down to the Transportation Room that usually served to teleport them onto the stage. However, to their dismay they realized that they couldn't transport themselves.

"Limit reached," an automated cool, feminine voice sounded, when Popo pressed a button. "Only four Smashers at a time can venture onto the stage of Fountain of Dreams."

Ness cursed, repeatedly jabbing at the button that made them teleport. "Limit reached. Only four Smashers at a time can venture onto Fountain of Dreams," The automated voice responded every time he pressed the button.

"What do we do now?" Nana moaned.

They all watched as the dragon swiped at Sheik with its claws. The ninja dodged it effortlessly, and climbed up the dragons back who roared and began to buck around the stage. It opened its jaws and belched out searing hot flames, trying to get Sheik off its back.

"Hang in there, Zelda!" Link yelled. He drew his bow and arrow and fired at the dragon but the arrow merely glanced off the dragon's tough hide. He took out his Gale Boomerang and threw it at the dragon with all of his might but the dragon swiped at it, veering the feathered weapon off its course. Instead it was directed towards Joeb who was caught in the whirlwind helplessly and dragged more towards Link.

"Lynn, get us out of here!" Joeb screamed towards the control center.

"I do not know how!" Lynn said desperately, her body growing numb in fear. She was staring at all the buttons in front of her but she didn't know which one forfeited the match. She pressed a button and a Bomb-omb dropped.

"Get down!" Joeb slammed himself against Link, knocking them both out of the way. A second later the Bomb-omb dropped and exploded exactly where Link had been a second ago. "Lynn!" Joeb screamed. The Pokemorph cowered.

On top of the dragon, Sheik was having a hard time staying on the dragon, let alone inflicting any sort of damage towards the massive beast. She couldn't afford to reach for her chain or her needles. This was going to be hard, but the ninja wasn't giving up just yet. She gripped her thighs against the dragon's long neck for a better hold. Then she reached for her unlimited supply of sharp needles and pulled out a handful, positioning one in between each of finger of her fist. It proved to be quite tough, and several needles were lost onto the floor in the process. She nearly poked her eye out one time when the dragon jerked upward. The dragon, making as much movement as possible was oblivious to the ninja's plans but Sheik finally managed to get the needles on her right hand where she wanted them to be.

Then, she gave a dangerous smile. Sheik hardly smiled at all, and when she did nobody ever saw how it looked like, thanks to her bandages. The only way you could tell was the way her eyes crinkled. However, when she smiled it was usually because the ninja smelled a definite victory.

She plunged her right hand, vertically into the dragon's hide hard. The needles pierced the dragon who let out a piercing shriek of agony and began to flap its wings in the air, taking Sheik on its flight as well. The dragon flew up in the air, flying higher and higher and finally it corkscrewed, showcasing its belly to the stars. Were it not for the needles, Sheik would have fallen off. But the ninja held fast to the needles with one hand, trying desperately to stay on and not drop to the fountain's shimmery surface. Her arm was tiring from holding on for so long and the needles were beginning to slip out of the dragon because of Sheik's weight. The ninja was finally forced to let go and she fell down towards the fountain, hitting the mirrored surface with a loud thud.

Link ran towards the ninja, yelling, "Zelda!" The ninja was lying on her back, her eyes closed. "Wake up!" He said desperately to the ninja. He shook the body, but the ninja did not wake up. Gently, he reached a hand to the bandage covering her face and was about to peel them off when Sheik's hand shot out, and caught his hand in an iron grip. Link winced in pain as the ninja twisted it away before sitting up.

"Are you alright?" he asked. He was too used to Sheik's personality. The ninja did not like close proximity and was the exact opposite of her alter ego. Sheik was a woman of little words, very calculating and shrewd. Some called her cold, but Link knew her better than that.

"You should not worry about me," she said, speaking in her hoarse voice. "Worry about that dragon," she said, weakly pointing upwards. The dragon was still twisting and shrieking in agony. The needles were still in its back and the beast could not get them off. "It will tire soon. When it does, it will turn back into that girl," Sheik predicted. She stood up, shakily.

From below, all the Smashers in that room watched the dragon, still dumbstruck.

* * *

><p>It was the third time they heard the muffled answer. "Go away."<p>

"Let us in, please?" Brandon asked yet again.

"Why should I? I know why you're here." The woman's voice sounded teary.

Brandon and Jeka exchanged a look. Jeka looked visibly annoyed but his good graces prevented him from lashing out. "This is a waste of time," he complained, trying to keep his voice low. "The goth chick isn't going to let us in."

"I'm not a goth!" Elizebeth protested angrily from the other side, despite her tears.

Brandon sighed. This was getting them nowhere. "We just want to talk," he explained gently. He felt compelled to add, "We just want to get to know you. Maybe even be friends."

There was a funny noise on the other side, like a noise that was halfway between a snort and a hiccup. "Friends." They heard Elizebeth say in a wry tone. "I already have friends. They were kind enough to send me here."

Jeka and Brandon exchanged yet another look. They both mirrored the same move expression; one of deep confusion. Jeka turned to face the door and said, "Look, Liz. Can I call you Liz?" And without waiting for a response he went on, "You would be a lot easier to talk to if you only opened the door."

There was a pause and then the door opened slowly. In the frame of the room stood a small woman. Jeka thought her appearance looked horrible. She was still dressed in her pajamas even though it was late afternoon. Her eyes were red and swollen like she was crying and her black hair, usually sleek was thoroughly messed up. She looked quite a mess. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice raw from crying.

"Er... We just wanted to talk," Brandon stammered, quite taken aback by her appearance. She looked pitiful, down to the last inches of her purple pajamas. He felt sorry for her, but at the same time he had to find out whether or not Elizebeth was the killer.

She sighed, a clear sign of defeat. Then she moved sideways so they could come into her room. It was clear that she was sharing it with Ri and Lynn. While Ri's side looked a normal girl's, Lynn's was full of strange objects and her decor was, on the whole, grim and dark purple, and unusually neat.

Elizebeth on the other hand had nothing to suggest the kind of person she really was. Her area of the room was sparsely furnished. Brandon recalled watching a documentary that said that terrorists usually never left behind anything that showed the kind of person they were. He shivered and forced himself to calm down.

She took a seat on her bed, while Jeka took the chair by their vanity mirror and chest while Brandon sat on Ri's bed that faced opposite to Elizebeth.

"Well?" Elizebeth asked, when a couple of seconds went by and nobody said anything. "Why are you here?"

It was Jeka who spoke. "We figured we wanted some answers," he responded, running a hand through his white hair casually. "The kind of person you are, why you murdered Sean..." he trailed off.

Elizebeth flinched at his accusation before her face contorted into a furious expression. "I did _not_ kill Sean," she hissed.

Sensing that things were about to get ugly, Brandon spoke first. "What were you doing down in the basement then?" Brandon said, cutting his friend off. "Why were you there in the first place?"

Elizebeth sighed again, her hackles going down. "You're smart, why don't you figure it out?" she mumbled, not looking at either of them.

"C'mon, Liz. Just give it to us straight or we'll be forced to assume you did it," Jeka said.

Elizebeth looked at Jeka and Brandon, gauging whether or not she should let them into her life. Then she internally shrugged. _What do I have left to lose? Being pegged as a killer is just about the lowest you can go..._ Somehow, she knew her "friends" would laugh at her, if they could see her in this predicament.

So she began. "You probably notice that I don't like to be around people."

Jeka and Brandon said nothing. It was painfully obvious from the moment that they'd seen Elizebeth that she was not one to socialize and that she was very unfriendly. But both were too polite to actually agree with her aloud.

"There's a reason for that. I once tried to make friends but they all either end up betraying me or leaving me."

"What do you mean by leaving you?" Jeka interrupted.

Elizebeth fixed him with a look. "They move and they just don't bother to contact me after awhile. I understand," she sighed. "They have their own lives in a new place. They don't want to be tied down with the old stuff. But it's because of this that I'm usually alone. I used to try so hard to make friends but it isn't for me. The last straw was Caitlan."

"Whose Caitlan?" Brandon asked, an eyebrow raised.

"She used to be my friend. Actually throughout all of high school she was my best friend. We were... Inseparable, or so I thought. Because of Caitlan I didn't care that other people thought I was friendless. As long as I had Caitlan by my side, I was okay. I was fine.

"But then we both started college and everything changed. A lot of people say that college is a time where people grow up and find out who they are. I guess it was true. Caitlan and I were headed in different directions. Caitlan wanted to join a sorority and I wanted to end up in forensics so I was always hard at work, perfecting my grades, while Caitlan was off socializing or partying." she paused, trying to recollect her thoughts. Her hands were twisting in her lap. "Finally, there were a couple of sorority houses that accepted Caitlan. But in order for the one that she really wanted to be in to accept her as a sister she had to turn her best friend into her worst enemy. It was a sorority test. They wanted to see if she'd do whatever it took to be a sister of their house.

"She started making excuses at first. Every time I'd ask her if she wanted to hang out, she'd say she was busy. Then she started to outright ignore me. When I finally confronted her she snapped at me." Here Elizebeth's voice wavered. "She said I was boring, and that I was bringing her down because I had zero social skills and that... That my parents were right to abandon me."

"Your parents abandoned you?" Jeka asked.

"I grew up in an orphanage," Elizebeth said, clarifying. "I traced my parents later on. I wanted to know who they were and I did manage to find my mother. She lived in a manor and was the heiress to a large fortune. I later found out she just never wanted me even as a child. I was born out of wedlock."

"What about your father?"

"Nobody knows who he is. It never showed up anywhere I tried searching for."

Jeka and Brandon were silent for a long time. They didn't know what to say. Brandon was feeling sorry for her, but he wasn't quite ready to give in to his feelings yet, or to show her that he felt that way towards her.

On the other hand Jeka was thinking along different lines. "So what are we supposed to be doing then? Feeling sorry for you?"

Elizebeth looked startled at his accusation. "No, not really." She took a deep breath. "I just wanted to let you know that it was from that point on that I realized that I didn't need friends and that I'm not out to seek any... It's why I was alone in the basement. I was exploring the Mansion on my own, because I didn't want to do the whole meet and greet thing."

Brandon quirked an eyebrow. "That's weird," he commented. "Why are you even here then? Getting admitted to the Mansion is all about getting to know the Smashers and making friends."

"I never entered myself in. That was Caitlan. It was another attempt to... Embarrass me."

"That makes no sense at all. Millions of people were dying to get a ticket into this contest," Jeka shot back derisively.

"I know," Elizebeth agreed. "But where I come from people think Smash is just for kids or nerds. In fact, most of the people here are lower than my age, with the exception of Joeb and Sean. It's something for little kids and Caitlan's sorority thinks Smash is uncool so when one of her housemates won a ticket as a lark, she gave it to Caitlan to give to me. Caitlan entered me in without my knowledge and once I realized what had happened, it was too late to back out. Caitlan's doing this for my humiliation so that she and her housemates can get a good laugh." She clenched her fists angrily. "But I'll show them whose boss. They won't ever laugh at me again."

_She was doing fine until she said _that. _Now it just sounds like she's trying to kill people for revenge..._ Brandon thought, unnerved. He could tell Jeka was having the same thoughts from the way the white-haired boy twisted uncomfortably in his chair.

Nevertheless, Brandon did not think Elizebeth was the killer. The girl obviously had issues judging by her past. But there was a way to correct that and Brandon ultimately didn't think Elizebeth was a killer. "I don't think you murdered Sean, Elizebeth," he announced.

"You don't?" Elizebeth looked up for the first time at Brandon. Her vivid green eyes seemed startled, but there was also a hint of hope. Despite Elizebeth saying that she didn't need friends, Brandon could see that she could use one. It was obvious that all she needed was somebody to show that they cared about her.

"No. I don't think you're the killer type. You've had a hard time in your life and I'm sorry about that," Brandon said sincerely. "But I don't think you should give up on making friends. You just need to work at it until you find a place that accepts you as the person you are. You might even be surprised in what you find. There are good people in this world too."

Elizebeth looked doubtful but she said nothing. _Easier said than done..._

"Now, if you'll excuse us," Brandon said. "We must be going." He and Jeka exited the bedroom.

"Did you honestly buy that?" Jeka snorted derisively once they were out of earshot. "It was just a sob story for us to feel sorry for her."

"She looked like she was telling the truth," Brandon said.

"I don't think so," Jeka responded. "Did you hear what she said in the end? 'They won't ever laugh at me again'? I think she's gone psycho."

"Believe what you want, but I think we have to look a little closer at the situation to see who was really behind Sean's death. We can't base our conclusions only on suspicions. We need concrete proof," Brandon countered. He brooded over what else Master Hand had said to Samus. He couldn't see what else to do at this point. They had hit a dead end but the boy wasn't going to give up yet. He just needed to look at the this mystery in another angle.

* * *

><p>"Why are you looking at <em>our<em> files?" Zack exclaimed, outraged. "That's our private stuff!"

Snake raised an eyebrow. "Why do you seem so opposed to us looking through them, kid? Is there something you don't want us to find?"

Zack glared at Snake. "Would you like it if I knew your life story? We barely know each other!"

"Notice how he doesn't answer the question," Pit murmured to Lucas who looked uncertainly from Smasher to fan.

Snake rubbed his unshaven chin thoughtfully. "He has a point," he concluded gruffly. "But I didn't come this far to just turn back with any answers."

"Then don't," Lucas suggested nervously. Everybody turned to the young Smasher, prompting him to speak. "We won't look at any of the other files... Except for Elizebeth's and Sean's."

"And Ri's," Pit threw in. Ri shot him a dirty look.

"Why are you looking through _my_ file?" she asked. "I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Sure about that?" Pit said, giving her a hard look.

"Stop arguing," Zack said calmly. "We don't have any cause to look through Ri's file. I was with her through most of the dinner."

"Most of it, but not all of it," Pit shot back.

"It doesn't matter. Why would Ri be behind the murder when it was her idea we came to find out answers? It doesn't make sense," Zack said, shaking his head.

_She could be throwing us off her scent..._ Pit wanted to argue back, but Snake had shot him a warning look that meant that the angel should not argue anymore.

"Okay, are we in agreement then?" Snake asked. "We're only looking through Elizebeth's and Sean's file."

Everybody grumbled in agreement. Ri picked up the files that were scattered over all over the floor and began to organize them in a stack on the desk. "Er... I think somebody should keep watch just in case anybody comes in."

"I already got that covered," Snake said. "I put motion sensors right outside the main door."

"Okay," Ri said, taking a deep breath. She moved Jeka's file aside and slid Elizebeth's from underneath Cammy's. She slid out Sean's which was in between her's and Drey's. "Which should we look at first?"

"Sean's," Snake said and without a moment of hesitation, Ri flipped the file open. Sean's photo was clipped to the front page. He was smiling cheerfully, his brown hair tousled, his glasses halfway across the bridge of his nose. His green eyes sparkled with intelligence. Ri felt a wave of sadness pass over her. He definitely did not deserve to die so cruelly. She wondered what he had gone through in his final moments and she felt a different wave, one of nausea, pass over her. She tore her eyes away from his photograph and looked over his bio:

**Full Name: **Sean Albert Whitefield

**Date of Birth****: **November 15, 1988

**Father: **Albert Whitefield (Deceased)

**Mother****: **Sarah Kemak

**Siblings:** none

**Occupation:** Undercover reporter for The Nintendo Times.

They all read on further but besides Sean's occupation, the man seemed incredibly normal. He'd been engaged for six months, but his girlfriend had broken it off when she moved away to Evergrande City which was halfway across the world. Ri was getting bored going through the pages.

"That's interesting," Snake growled suddenly. "Looks like we had an undercover reporter here to sniff out a story and ruin us all. It says here that The Nintendo Times sent him here to do a report on the inside of Smash Tournaments and expose any scandals or corruption going on in here. It was supposed to be their main story of the year."

Zack and Ri exchanged a look. They both were thinking the same thing. _This increases the chances of the murderer being a Smasher significantly._ But they didn't dare voice the thought aloud. What if the murderer was in the room right now?

"Who compiled these files and who did the background checks?" Ri asked hesitantly. It seemed odd that whoever had researched these files never bothered to tell Master Hand that Sean was an undercover reporter.

"Crazy Hand did," Pit answered. "Crazy Hand is always the one who obtains information about all of us and does our background checks before admitting us into the Mansion. He usually gives the files to Master Hand but he accidentally burned himself and he's being treated for severe burns. Master Hand still visits him in the hospital."

Zack gaped at Pit's calm nature as he explained all of this. "He... he burned himself?" he stammered.

"He usually does two or three times a year. He loves setting things on fire. I'm guessing Master Hand didn't really get a chance to go through the files, or just perused them without reading over them carefully," Snake said noncommittally.

They went back to Sean's file but there was nothing else on there that was of interest so they moved onto Elizebeth's. There was a headshot of the woman on the front, like Sean's. But unlike Sean's cheerful smile, Elizebeth was giving the camera a sullen look, as if she really did not even want to take the photograph. Looking at Elizebeth carefully for the first time in depth, Ri realized that the woman had the potential to be pretty, but made no effort to wear any make up or wore any flattering clothes. Her vivid green eyes held a glint of darkness and a lot of unhappiness.

**Full Name: **Elizebeth Rivers

**Date of Birth: **February 10, 1988

**Father:** Unknown

**Mother:** Unknown

**Siblings: **Unknown

**Occupation: **Unemployed

"This is stupid," Pit muttered as he read over her file. "Her family's not even in here and she's unemployed, yet she graduated on the President's List from the University of Nintendo. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get into that college?"

Nobody answered Pit. They were too busy reading over the file. "This file says nothing about her," Snake said in frustration. "Just that she graduated from college and then sat at home like a bum."

"Maybe because there's nothing to report on her," Ri suggested. But she looked back at picture and the way Elizebeth stared at the camera with that icy look in her eyes. Ri knew that look. It was the look of a woman who guarded her secrets carefully and refused to let anybody breach her walls.

She knew because she'd given that same look to others.

* * *

><p>Her vision was blurry when she first opened her eyes but she blinked her eyes again and again until the ceiling above her came into sharp focus. She instinctively knew what happened and she groaned.<p>

_I did it again. Damn it. Damn it all! This was _not _supposed to happen!_

"Drey?" The question floated lightly, curiously through the princess's ears warming her up. She could get used to listening to _his_ voice. She groaned. She felt sore all over.

"Where am I?" she mumbled. This place didn't look familiar to her at all. The ceiling was white, the bed she was lying on was white, everything was white or light shades of blue and grey.

"You're in the hospital ward," Link said. "You er... You passed out during our match I think because uh, well... Do you remember?" he asked lamely.

"I... I just remember arguing with Princess Zelda... I transformed, didn't I?" she asked him. She shook her head ruefully. "I never remember what happens while I'm transformed." She sat up and winced in pain when she realized that the back of her neck hurt a lot and was also covered in bandages. "What happened to me?"

Link looked startled at the fact that she seemed to know all about her transformation. "Your neck... Princess Dreygon," Link started. He began to recount the tale, woodenly. Of how Zelda transformed into Sheik and stuck her needles into her neck as a dragon and how Sheik fell down eventually.

"Then you just flew around until Lynn finally figured out how to end the match. Once she warped us out, you... Er, the dragon I guess, you were in a lot of pain so you started thrashing around wildly. You hit your head against the wall of the warp room and passed out. When you were unconscious, you transformed back into a human, but nobody wanted to be around you. I had to carry you to the infirmary and Dr. Mario placed you in the hospital ward."

_Link carried me?_ Drey thought. A warm blush spread over her cheeks. _I wish I was conscious for _that.

"Luckily, you heal quickly... I'm not sure why though," Link said. "So the wounds on your neck weren't that bad. But Dr. Mario said you have to stay here for the rest of the day because you also suffered a concussion."

_That explains the headache..._ She looked at Link who looked pale. She wondered if he was scared of her. "I have the blood of the dragon within me," she explained softly. "That's why I heal quicker than most."

He looked even more shocked. But then his face grew dark. He laughed mirthlessly. "Blood of the dragon in you. Wow." He whistled lowly. "And you weren't planning on telling any of us that you turn into a killing machine when enraged?" He asked coldly.

Drey flinched at the sound of his voice. What was she supposed to say? She instinctively knew that she'd messed up. Horribly. "Link, I..." she could feel her throat tightening. The rest of the sentence died in her throat as he fixed her with a hard stare.

"No, please _princess,_" he said, using her title sarcastically. "Please finish telling me your excuse."

"Link, I know it's not a game!" she pleaded. She was about to say more, but the Hero of Time cut her off.

"Damn right it isn't!" he yelled. "You nearly killed us all. You almost killed Zelda_. How could you do that?_"

They stared at each other. His eyes were burning in anger and it hurt to look into those eyes.

_So that's why he's so mad... I nearly killed Zelda. He really does love her after all._ Drey was numb. But she didn't know exactly why. She should have known. Link and Zelda. Zelda and Link. Their relationship transcended even time, over past generations. How could she even hope to compete with that? Fate had always brought them together and all that stuff. She watched Link. She never seen this angry side of him. It scared her, but she forced herself to stay calm. If her feelings got too out of hand... She would transform into the dragon again.

"You should go," She said. Her voice was steady, polite, blank.

Link stared at her a moment longer. His expression was still angry, defiant. Then he got up and left without looking back. When she was certain he was gone she began to cry. Her stay at Smash Mansion was already shaping into a Hell. It would be nice if the killer just finished her off as well. Anything was better than this ache she felt in her heart. _Now I know why they say it's called heartbreak._

The door opened again, startling her. She furiously swiped the tears off her face, her heart quickening. But it wasn't Link. It was Rio.

The pink haired girl dropped casually into the seat that Link vacated and watched Drey with a look of sympathy.

"Why are you here?" Drey asked, annoyed.

Rio shrugged. "I don't know. They said somebody had to be with you at all times and you don't seem to have that many friends around here so they said I had to come down... Since we're roomies and all." She sighed, stretching her long legs.

Drey suppressed a groan. She didn't know Rio that well, but the little she knew about the angel was enough to make her decide that she did not want to be friends with her. However, Drey was a princess and princesses were polite so she didn't say anything. _If there's one thing Zelda's good at, it's maintaining her composure. I should start doing that too..._ she thought grudgingly. She looked at Rio who seemed oblivious to Drey's thoughts.

"So who was it?" Rio asked nonchalantly. She was braiding her hair now.

"Who was what?" Drey asked, puzzled.

"Who was it that made you cry?" Rio asked softly. The braid became more complex as she went down. "Was it Marth or Link? I'm guessing it was Link."

Drey stiffened. Was she that obvious? "Can you mind your own business?" She asked, fighting to keep the irritation out of her voice.

But Rio ignored her warning. Instead she said, "My sister Dark once said that the most hardest thing you can ever go through is a loss. She said it could mean death of a loved one, or the loss of a dream, or trying to let go of your feelings for somebody who does not reciprocate them."

Drey sighed. _Oh, what the heck. She's here. I might as well talk._ "Your sister's smart. You were right. It is Link. He's totally into Zelda."

Rio chuckled slightly, but it wasn't a happy chuckle. "Well then we're in the same boat. Ike and Peach are dating."

Drey was going to point out and say that she already knew but instead she changed her mind and commented, "You and Ike seem to share a history together."

Rio looked up, startled that Drey had made an observation about her life. "Y-yes," she stammered. "That's true. We used to be best friends at some point." She smiled sadly. "Actually, what happened was that Pit and I worked in the same division our goddess, Palutena. We weren't too close, but we were good friends.

"Then, at some point, my goddess saw that the Subspace Emissary was about to occur. She was going to send me down to help at first because I had more experience with Nintendo's world but Pit begged to go down too. He was always interested in the Smash games and it was his dearest ambition to become one of them. He really wanted to interact with the world and experience what humans and creatures experienced. My goddess was cautious with Pit though. He'd never gone down to earth once, and she didn't want him to go down alone so as a compromise she sent us both down to Earth. She warned us never to separate but as we journeyed down, the Halberd, which was controlled by Tabuu's army at the time, blasted at us and we lost sight of each other. You know where Pit landed, but I coincidentally landed unconsciously in a location by Marth, Ike and Roy who were in the process of defending their region.

"Ike was new to the whole concept of Brawl and was very unfriendly to any newcomers. Besides Marth and Roy he talked to nobody, not even me though I tried my hardest to be friendly around him.

"At some point Marth and Roy parted ways from Ike and I, while we were battling some Shaydases. Marth and Roy were pulled up by Trowlons and we didn't see them until later on... It was during then that Ike and I began to get to know each other. At first he didn't say anything at all. But I pressed him for conversation. I was lonely without my sister and the only person who I could talk to at the time was Ike. And slowly I began to learn more about him."

At this point, Rio looked like she was in another world. She seemed not to be looking at anything anymore, but the memories that flashed behind her eyes. "I found out that he was a mercenary, that his father was killed without any mercy. I suspect the fact that his loss was the reason why he didn't like becoming close to people. But I made him talk again and we developed... A special bond. Or so I thought.

"Once the war was over Palutena summoned me back to the skies because she realized Pit was doing fine down there and Medusa had once again started a war up in the heavens. I told him that I had to leave on her orders. He said he understood..."

_"I will always remember you," he said once she told him that she was returning to her home. "You taught me so much about life."_

_"I learned a lot from you too. I hope I can continue to do so," she responded shyly. All around them there was wreckage from the war. She looked up at him and for a brief moment their eyes were locked onto each other. "Ike... I..." She began. She wanted to tell him something that would make him understand how important he was to her. She wanted to complete the sentence, to tell him how she'd really felt about him. But she thought about Palutena and something made her stop._

_Ike looked at her questioningly but words failed her. "Nothing," she said and before he could see the tears in her eyes, she unraveled her wings and flew towards the sky. She heard him shout something at her, but whatever it was was lost on her ears. All she could hear was the beat of her wings and the rhythmic, slow, sad beat of her heart._

Drey understood now. "You never told him how you felt?" She asked hesitantly.

"I couldn't at the time. What if I'd never returned from above? But once the war with Medusa was over, I came here because I wanted to tell him my true feelings. At that point I regretted not telling him. But I never got the chance to when I found out that he and Peach were together," she said, ending the story with a bitter tone.

Drey sighed. "That's quite a shame. It was all ill timing. Well you know what they say. If it was meant to be..." She trailed off. Then she gave a wicked grin. "Anyway, I'm sure you and I would cream her and Zelda if we were to ever battle."

The last statement elicited a watery smile from Rio, which satisfied Drey for the time being. She had found herself an ally, maybe even a friend.

* * *

><p>Dinner was a drab affair. All of the Chosen Few chose to sit together this time, though Cammy kept shooting longing looks towards her new friends - The Smash kids. The Smashers themselves, on the whole, seemed perfectly content with this arrangement though. The two tables kept shooting suspicious looks at one another.<p>

Sean's seat was absent and all of the Chosen Few were trying their best to ignore it by conversing about different things. For the most part, everybody seemed to have found a friend. Ri and Zack were talking in low undertones about what they'd discovered that day. Rio and Drey were swapping stories about their life, while Brandon was trying to include Elizebeth into his conversation he was carrying with Jeka who looked uncomfortable and kept shooting suspicious looks at the woman but Elizebeth didn't seem to mind. She seemed slightly cheered that somebody was talking to her.

"You do not wish to be here," Lynn observed. Cammy's eyes darted away from Young Link who was trying to shove a carrot up Ness's nostril, over to the woman who was speaking to her.

"What?" Cammy asked alarmed.

"If you consider them your friends then you should sit with them," Lynn said.

_Wise advice,_ Lucario intoned into Lynn's head. _Don't you think you should follow it?_

_I don't see what you mean. I am,_ Lynn responded icily.

_You may be sitting with them, but you are not really with them..._ Lucario responded, his voice drifting away. Lynn was puzzled by his choice of words, but when she tried to ask what he meant she realized he'd withdrawn from her consciousness.

"Helloooo, earth to Lynnie!" Cammy said, waving her hand emphatically in front of the Pokemorph.

Lynn blinked. "Sorry?" she asked politely.

"I was just asking why you aren't hanging out with Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Lucario?"

"Just because I resemble them, doesn't mean I consider them my friends. Besides, I'm not fully a Pokemon." _Also..._ she added in her mind, _Lucario gives me the creeps._

"Something seems off," Joeb murmured under his breath, completely oblivious to their conversation. He was looking at the table with all the Smashers. A frown was settling over his features as he contemplated the scene.

Lynn's eyes swept over to the table too. "What do you mean?" She looked over the Smashers carefully.

Joeb didn't respond. Ever since the incident where it had taken Lynn a long time to locate the button to forfeit the match, the middle-aged man had given her some distance. Lynn could sense his feeling of animosity towards her, and she couldn't blame him. Guiltily, she recalled how she'd panicked. She hardly ever got that way. She was usually so calm and collected in those situations. _Was I really fearing for their lives?_ The notion was ridiculous. She was a Mismagius Pokemorph after all. She did not feel the way humans felt. Her emotions were different.

"I know what it is," Joeb announced suddenly.

"What?" Cammy asked.

"Wario's not at the table."

"So?" Cammy asked. "He probably would've eaten all of our food, so it's good he's not here." She rolled her eyes.

"So? There is no 'so'. Why would Wario skip out on a meal? Food is practically his life, besides making money," Joeb muttered under his breath.

"Indigestion?" Lynn suggested.

"Or maybe, he's the killer," Zack said conspiratorially, joining in the conversation. This prompted a laugh from Ri.

"Come on, do you honestly think it's Wario? He's too lazy to do anything... And he's not very clever."

"Looks can be deceiving." Lynn felt compelled to argue. Something was nagging her at the back of her head. It was at this point that Lucario once again breached her mind. _Lynn, do not be scared. Remain calm._

_Why would I be scared?_ Lynn asked Lucario, completely nonplussed.

_Look up._

The hair at the back of the Pokemorph's neck prickled at his instructions. Instinctively, she knew she was about to see something dreadful. Lynn's eyes looked up and she stifled a gasp, but Joeb had seen her reaction so he looked up himself. On the ceiling there was a long arrow pointing towards the doors of the dining room. Lynn wouldn't have been so surprised, except for the fact that the arrow seemed to be made of somebody's bloody entrails.

* * *

><p><strong>I know. I'm seriously the lamest person ever with my update speed. It's been almost (Actually I think it's been more than) two months since I last updated. I AM SO SORRY D:<strong>

**Well, here's a long chapter. It took me awhile to actually post this up because there was a problem with my Edit/Preview Document page. It was forcing me to basically write the whole thing with HTML code and wouldn't let me italicize, bold or add line breaks. For those of you who don't know, I actually type up the whole story on this edit page (Probably why there are so many typos in my story, now that I think about it) so you can see why this is a problem. I also had school... Though this shouldn't be an excuse for TWO months. D: I'm so sorry!**

**Anyway, I'm on holiday soon, so hopefully updates should be quicker! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.**


	6. Whose Hungry?

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related.**

* * *

><p>"That can't <em>possibly <em>be..." Joeb muttered under his breath.

Lynn didn't answer. Her eyes flickered towards Lucario but the jackal-like pokemon had given no note that he had communicated with her at all. He was concentrating on his food.

_How did you know that was there?_ she asked suspiciously.

_I sense things... _and that was all he had to say on that matter. She tried to probe his mind but he'd severed their telepathic contact firmly, making her grow suspicious of the Aura sensing pokemon.

By now all of the Chosen Few had noticed the arrow and were muttering and pointing. Jeka muttered, "Sounds like _somebody _was busy," he said, shooting a look at Elizebeth, who paled visibly.

"It wasn't me!" she protested, her voice cracking.

"I believe you," Ri assured her. Zack looked at her in surprise but said nothing. He privately felt that Ri was too trusting of others, but he knew if he voiced his opinion aloud to her, she would shoot him down.

"You do?" The older woman asked hopefully at the exact same time Jeka did in an incredulous tone.

"Yes," Ri responded firmly. She got up from the table.

"Where do you think you're going?" Zack asked nervously.

"Where do you think that arrow is pointing towards? I'm not going to wait until I'm finished with supper. Are you guys coming or not?"

Elizebeth paled even more but she nodded. Zack stood up also as did Jeka and Joeb. Lynn, after a moment's reflection stood up gracefully as well.

Drey and Rio also began to stand up but Zack said, "We need somebody to take care of Cammy."

"Cammy?" Drey asked, annoyed. "She can take care of herself!"

"Yeah!" Cammy said, a small frown playing over her lips. "Why can't I come?"

The others exchanged looks and all of them seemed to agree that Cammy was too young for whatever they might unearth.

Cammy and Drey seemed very irritated by the census that had been reached. Rio, on the other hand, sighed in defeat. "Fine. We'll stay. On one condition though, you have to tell us what you find."

"Of course," Jeka responded. Then he looked around him. "Hey, where's Bran?"

The others looked around, but realized that the intelligent teenager had disappeared while they had been talking.

"This isn't good at all," Rio murmured nervously.

"We need to split up. Elizebeth, Zack and Jeka will look for him. There's a good chance the murderer could be after him. Lynn, Joeb and I will go in the arrow's direction," Ri said quickly, her thoughts racing as she said it. To be honest, Lynn creeped her out, but she had to admit that out of all of them the pokemorph seemed the best option to sense any danger. Elizebeth and Jeka seemed to be Brandon's friends, but she didn't want them to go alone so she put Zack with them as well, the person she trusted the most so far.

"Why do you get to decide?" Joeb grumbled. "_I'm_ the oldest." But he was curious about where the arrow led so he didn't say much after that.

"Make sure that you three don't tell the Smashers what we're up to," Ri said to Cammy, Rio and Drey. She had ignored Joeb. "Give them any kind of excuse for our departure. Let's let Zack's group move out first. We will leave a couple of minutes later so we don't arouse any suspicion."

"I hope Bran's okay," Elizebeth whispered as she left. Ri gave her a reassuring smile, but inside the younger girl was sick with worry as well.

* * *

><p>Bran was one of the first to see the entrails and he did not want to stick around. <em>There's a good chance that the less people there are around, the more clues I will find.<em> He contemplated telling Jeka to come with him, but decided not to. There was a good chance that Jeka would just think that it was Elizebeth and the last thing Bran needed was to be bombarded with theories about how the woman could have done it. He needed an open mind. As he exited the hall, he tried to recall who was at the table for dinner but then realized that it didn't matter.

"Whoever the murderer is probably committed it earlier and put that arrow up before dinner was served. Which means that the murder probably happened before dinnertime. Maybe during the time after lunch and before dinner." He frowned. Outside the dinner hall, there were three places to go. He could go upstairs, down to the basement or stick around and conduct his search on the main floor.

_If I murdered somebody... Where would I hide the body?_ The trouble was, Brandon was not a murderer. He didn't know how to think like one. _But... Based on the last one, it would seem like these murders are committed because the person _wants_ us to be scared. The murderer wants us to find the body... which means the body would be in a place that we would eventually find sooner or later. But where? _He thought, frustrated.

He stared at the three directions. _Let me eliminate the basement. It seems illogical that the body would be in the same place which would mean either upstairs or the main floor._ He bit his lip, the seconds ticking by before he finally made his decision and started towards it.

* * *

><p>"Where do you think he went?" Zack asked once they were out of the dining hall. Elizebeth shrugged as did Jeka whose eyes were trained to his smartphone. Zack gave them an exasperated look. "You both are supposed to be his friends!"<p>

"I... I'm not his friend!" Elizebeth protested. _Am I? I hardly know him yet... He's the first one who actually wanted to know my story. Does that make us friends? _"I don't know if we're friends," she amended herself. "But I don't know much about him either. I can't tell whether he'd be in the basement, on this floor or if he'd go upstairs."

Jeka looked bored with the conversation; he was playing with his smartphone. Without looking up he said, "Let's play a guessing game then shall we? We have a one in three shot of getting his location right and a one in three shot of ending up on the floor where that arrow wants us to end up."

"I think he took the stairs," Elizebeth said decisively.

"How can you tell?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow arched. He looked up from his phone to narrow his eyes at her suspiciously.

"Yeah, how did you come to that conclusion?" Zack asked, though he tried masking the suspicion from his voice.

Elizebeth looked startled at the hostility Jeka was showing her, but recovered quickly; she was getting used to his suspicious nature regarding her. "It's obvious Bran was looking for the murderer, right? Unless he did the crime himself, which I highly doubt..."

"Because it's you, probably," Jeka muttered, but Zack shot him a look that made him quiet down.

Elizebeth swallowed nervously at his comment, but she continued in a strong voice. "So he probably took the most logical choice that would lead him to where the arrow wanted him to go. I think he took the stairs because the entrails were left on the ceiling. If they were left on the floor he would have taken the basement because the arrow would be closest to the floor..."

"...And if the arrow were on the table then whatever it was we would need to search for would be on the main floor, but it wasn't. It was on the ceiling so it would have to be the highest level." Zack said, catching on.

"Exactly," Elizebeth said, her cheeks flushed. She looked distinctly pleased with herself. "So let's go up those stairs then, shall we?"

* * *

><p>"Okay, I think it's time we leave," Joeb said quietly after ten minutes had passed. He turned to Cammy who still looked visibly annoyed that she wasn't coming along and he rolled his eyes at her attitude. Kids.<p>

"Now remember, if anybody asks about us..." Ri began.

"Say that Joeb felt very sick after having the filet and you and Lynn escorted him to his room. We know," Drey shot back, in a bad mood. _I should be there..._ she wanted to say.

As if Joeb could hear her thoughts he said acidly, "You'd be more of a threat than a help."

Drey flushed guiltily while Rio shot him a glare. "That wasn't very nice."

"_Me_? Not nice? You should look at Princess Dragon here if you think I'm not nice," Joeb snorted. "I come here because I think I can finally relax and what do I get? Chaos. Chaos everywhere."

"Could we stop arguing?" Lynn asked quietly. "We need to move."

"Lynn's right. Let's go," Ri said, looking nervous but determined. She stood up and the other two followed. Cammy watched their retreating backs sourly but did not say a word.

_I've seen and handled more than they ever did, I bet!_ she thought. _I hate being treated like a child, like I have to be watched over! I could help if somebody just asked me! But nobody ever does. They're gonna regret it._

Oblivious to the little girl's dark thoughts, Rio's eyes unconsciously slid over to Peach who was giggling at something Mario had just said. The angel sighed. _I'd give anything to be in that princess's shoes... She's so lucky._ Her eyes flitted over to Link who was looking unnaturally surly, Zelda who also seemed subdued and Marth who was languidly examining his reflection on the back of his soup spoon and finally her eyes rested on Ike who she was shocked to find was looking at her as well. Their eyes locked and within a millisecond, Rio's eyes darted away, panicked. _How embarrassing is this! He must think I'm a creep. _She blushed, her eyes settling on Captain Falcon who was trying, but miserably failing to grab Samus's attention.

"You know I can see the future," Captain Falcon smirked.

"That's great," Samus responded flatly.

"The future tells me that you're not going to be wearing pants in about fifteen minutes."

"I'm not falling for it, Falcon," Samus snapped, finally turning to him. "You think that's supposed to turn me on?" She rolled her eyes upward, and then stopped midroll. And Rio knew why.

She grabbed Drey's arm, muttering, "Samus's just seen the arrow. What do we do now?"

Drey, who was angrily scarfing down her dessert stopped midbite to look at the blonde bounty hunter. They watched as Samus grabbed Captain Falcon's shoulder.

"Falcon," she said urgently. "Look up."

"I would, but your face must be a magnet, 'cause my eyes can only be pulled towards you," Captain Falcon said smirking.

"Seriously, Douglas. Look up."

At the sound of his first name, the other bounty hunter looked up curiously. "I don't see what's so..." And then his eyes widened. "My God," he said softly. "What the hell is thatl?"

"This isn't good," Drey muttered. "Everybody at our table is gone except us three. They'll think we're up to something. We need to do something."

"Well we need to do something fast, because things are about to get ugly real fast!" Rio responded.

* * *

><p>"Whose idea was it to take the basement, again?" Ri asked nervously. It was dark in here and unnaturally warm. Too dark for Ri's liking. She wasn't a huge fan of being stuck in the dark, unless there was somebody with her. Unfortunately the people with her now did nothing to alleviate the stress she was going through.<p>

"Mine," Lynn responded and there was no regret in her voice. "Something tells me this place holds some answers here."

There was a click and Ri and Lynn jumped but Joeb said in a dead calm voice, "Sorry. I got my gun out. You can't be too careful here."

This did nothing to calm Ri, though she agreed with his words. She was beginning to wonder why she'd gone with Lynn and Joeb. Both seemed scary to her. She couldn't make out Lynn's personality. On one hand, the pokemorph seemed totally sane on the surface and yet... She shuddered. There was something about her that seemed deranged.

It was a similar case for Joeb, though not as sinister. Joeb seemed normal, but it was moments like drawing his gun that Ri questioned whether or not he was innocent. As she studied him now, she couldn't help thinking that he held that gun as if he had known how to his whole life and had used it on many occasions. A chill went down her spine and she tried to focus her thoughts on their surroundings.

The basement was huge, consisting of many doors and spaces. There were also a maze of objects on the floor. More than once Ri tripped on these objects but Joeb and Lynn seemed less clumsy.

"Could you be any quieter?" Joeb hissed irritably. "Do you think the murderer's deaf?"

Ri muttered an apology, her cheeks flushing. She began concentrating on the floor instead. Was it her imagination or was the room getting hotter as they went in deeper? The floor was littered with newspapers, gym equipment, and other odd assorted items. After neatly dodging a pair of bear traps, she noticed dark stains on the linoleum floor and sucked in her breath, fast.

"What is it?" Lynn whispered.

"Something definitely happened here..." She pulled out her phone and switched it on so that it lit up and she could see the floor clearer. As the three studied the floor they noticed the dark stains leading further in.

"That's blood," Lynn said, her eyes widening. Ri's hand was beginning to shake as she pointed her phone further down. The trail of blood seemed to get heavier and heavier down.

Joeb knelt down on one knee and placed a finger on one of the stains. He frowned. "It's dry. You don't think this is just Sean's blood left over?"

Lynn knelt down too, but instead of touching the blood with her fingers she put her head close to the stain and breathed in deeply. "No. I can still smell it. If it were several days old, like Sean's, then I would barely be able to detect it."

Ri shuddered, despite the fact that she was beginning to sweat from the heat. "So what do we do? Move on?"

Joeb stood up, a grim look settling over his face. A trickle of sweat moved down his cheek but Ri couldn't tell whether it was due to the heat or nerves. "We're following that trail."

* * *

><p>"Where do we search then?" Zack asked. They were on the second floor, where all the bedrooms were.<p>

"Why don't we start with Wario's room?" Jeka suggested. "Didn't I hear somebody say he was missing from the dining room?"

"That seems the most logical choice," Zack agreed. And because she had no idea what else to do, Elizebeth was also forced to agree. They walked past the different dormitories. Each dorm housed characters from their respective games and according to their respective insignia. The big red and white mushroom on one door for example, indicated that Mario, Peach, Luigi and Bowser all lived there.

"Would Wario be in the Mushroom Dorm or have his own?" Zack mused. He stared at the door with the red mushroom. "Wario's had his own games, but he's Mario's cousin..."

Jeka frowned. "I think he'd have his own dorm. It's Wario after all. He's greedy enough to want his own room. Besides, you've seen his insignia right? It's not a mushroom, it's a W which means he's probably on his own."

"That makes sense," Elizebeth responded, nodding. "Shall we go then?"

"Lead the way," Zack said, gesturing forward. They walked down the corridor. Wario's room was all the way at the end since he was a third generation Smasher. There was a big "W" emblazoned on it, the color of gold. Zack rapped lightly at the door with his knuckles. "Uh, Wario? Hello?"

There was no answer. A sinking feeling was overcoming Zack. He turned his head back to Jeka and Elizebeth who both looked equally as nervous.

"Try harder?" Jeka suggested. "Maybe he didn't hear."

"Or maybe he's just not there," Elizebeth said, trying to keep her voice calm. "Maybe he's in the practice arena."

They all exchanged looks. It was highly unlikely that Wario, who was known for his sloth-like attitude on life, would be practicing.

Zack knocked at the door more insistently. "Wario?" he called out more loudly.

There was another ominous silence.

Jeka finally pushed Zack out of the way. "Let me try," he said impatiently. He tried the doorknob, ignoring Elizebeth's comment that they were invading his privacy.

To their surprise, the door actually opened. "He didn't lock his door?" Elizebeth asked, her voice uncharacteristically high. Wario tended to guard his belongings to the point where it was almost an unhealthy obsession. Why wouldn't he lock his door? Elizebeth knew the answer, but she did not want to think it. Couldn't think it.

Jeka sauntered into the room first and then stopped abruptly in his tracks. He gave a low, surprised whistle. Zack entered in too, eager to see what had driven the white haired boy to whistle and then stopped too.

Elizebeth was nervous, but she didn't want the boys to think she was more scared than they were, so she stepped in as well and breathed in sharply. A strong scent of cologne pervaded the air.

Wario's room was small with many things inside, things mostly made of gold or other precious metals and stones. His own bed frame, which was coated in gold, had rubies encrusted in a big "W" on the headboard. It was a treasure trove, that was for sure.

And it also looked as if a fight had taken place here because everything was in shambles. A lamp, made of fat sapphires had been knocked over, and the bed sheets looked thoroughly messy. Books, old antiques were strewn about the floor. The curtains had been ripped at the ends.

"Something happened here," Elizebeth said nervously. "A fight." She took a step forward and nearly stumbled over an upended bookcase. Zack seized her by the arm and brought her up.

Jeka looked grim. "If a fight happened here, then where are the people who were in the fight?" He sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose at the cologne and tried to make his way over to the source of the scent. He finally reached a broken cologne bottle, probably worth more than all of Jeka's life savings and picked it up gingerly. "Look at this," he called out.

Zack and Elizebeth strode over and Jeka held up the broken bottle. The cologne was still dripping from a sharp edge of the bottle. "This probably happened not too long ago," Jeka declared.

But Elizebeth had noticed something else. "Is that... hair?" She asked, horrified.

It was. A swath of brown hair coated in something dark and sticky was attached to the sharp edge. It took a moment for Elizebeth to realize that the something that was dark and sticky was blood.

"The attacker must have hit Wario with this bottle on the head," Zack said, his mind working rapidly.

Jeka tried not to imagine the scene and instead said, "Do you think the attacker left any fingerprints on this thing?"

Zack sighed. "With any luck, maybe. But this is Smash Mansion. What if the attacker isn't even human? If it had been Kirby, Game and Watch or Bowser or something, their would be no fingerprints to track."

"What about any DNA?" Elizebeth asked. "I saw a show on TV once and it talked about how easy it was to leave DNA traces behind. If we looked for hair, or dead skin or something..."

"That's TV, Elizebeth, get real," Jeka snorted. "I know Wario probably didn't have a lot of friends, but it would take a lot of time to comb through all the DNA traces left in this room. I'm sure people have came and went ever since Wario got this room, and _their_ DNA traces would still be in this room. Anyway, I'm sure the attacker, whoever he is, is an expert. He wouldn't leave anything that would trace him back."

"Yes he would," Zack said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I get the feeling that the murderer wants us to find him. These murders are meant to scare us, show us whose really in charge. He's going to toy with us by murdering people but then he's going to start dropping clues and we'll eat them up until we finally figure out who it is. But by then, it'll be too late," Zack said. His eyes were strangely unfocused and he looked paler than he normally was.

Jeka raised an eyebrow and said, with an uncertain laugh, "Are you trying to tell us something, Zack? That you go by an alias called Zack Attack and you do this kind of stuff when you're bored?"

Zack snapped back to reality. He rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he said lightly. He shrugged. "I just think that whoever's behind this is playing with us right now. We're just a game to him."

Elizebeth shuddered at Zack's words. For the first time, she studied him. It wasn't possible that Zack, normal friendly Zack who joked around constantly, was behind it all, was it? She forced herself to think rationally. Of course it couldn't be Zack, she told herself. It was ludicrous to think that a guy from Crossington, a _mail delivery assistant, _for Christ's sake, was the mastermind behind Sean and possibly Wario's death.

It was stupid.

...Still, she thought uncertainly as she looked at Zack whose back was turned towards her as he turned to talk to an equally unnerved Jeka. She was going to keep an eye on him. Right now, Zack Taran was number 1 on her suspect list.

* * *

><p>Jeka, Elizebeth and Zack were wrong in thinking that Brandon had gone up the stairs. He had, instead taken the main floor. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd decided to take the main floor. Perhaps it was because most Smashers tended to hang out over here when they weren't in the dining hall or practicing, or in the middle of a match. After all, the main floor also contained the kitchen, their personal home theater, a lounge, the library and a gym among other rooms. He walked quickly, each step increasing his pulse. Though Brandon normally had no trouble in being alone, he wished he'd brought Jeka with him. Despite the fact that Jeka was quick to point fingers at people, he felt that it was far better to have his friend at his side to protect him. Jeka had a powerful sense of self-assuredness that Brandon couldn't help but admire, and actually washed off on him as well, making him feel safe.<p>

Wait, friend? Brandon frowned, backtracking. Since when had he viewed Jeka as his friend? It had only been a couple of days since he'd met the older, and far taller teen. Brandon waved the thought away. He would deal with his personal feelings later. Right now, he had a killer to catch.

He stalked the carpeted halls, ignoring the paintings that graced its walls. Each painting depicted scenes from the Subspace Emissary. There was one of the Halberd, one of Samus freeing Pikachu from its experiment cell, and even one of Petey Pirhana, looking even more horrible than he did in real life, blood dripping from his leaves and sharpened teeth, towering over Zelda and Peach who had uncharacteristically frightened expressions on their faces as they cowered away from him. Brandon had already studied all the paintings already in great detail. Each was a masterpiece in its own right though he doubted that the artist had been there to experience the events that had unfolded. The one that fascinated Brandon the most was the final fight against Tabuu, anyway. It was a gigantic mural that depicted every single Smasher, old and new, tearing at the angel-esque deity. It puzzled Brandon that even the old Smashers were in on the fight. They were never credited as the heroes, after all.

In fact, Brandon thought, stopping suddenly in his tracks they weren't mentioned at all since the Subspace happened. Brandon thought with a cold feeling, when exactly was the last time he'd seen Roy, Dr. Mario, Mewtwo or any of ex-Smashers make a public appearance? He frowned deeply. None of them had been seen since the last tournament that they'd participated in, at least that much he could recall. He'd have to double check to be sure. But not right now. For now, he needed to search the main floor.

The first room he checked was the lounge which was basically a large sitting room where the Smashers hung around to talk, read, play card games or play their DS's together. Couches, bean bags, coffee tables with magazines and newspapers draped across them, adorned this room. Brandon doubted he would find something here but he checked anyway. He had no idea what he was looking for. A speck of blood? A sharp object? He checked in the couches, lifting the cushions, but aside from loose change, old receipts, and even a dogeared steamy romance novel (Which Brandon figured probably belonged to one of the female Smashers), and some other items there was nothing of interest between them. Frustrated, Brandon ran his hands through his face. Why wasn't this easier?

_Think, Brandon. Think!_ He squeezed his eyes shut but he'd drawn a hopeless blank. There had to be something that they'd all missed. He'd read once that serial killers, the brilliant ones especially, wanted to be found because they wanted recognition for their work. Whoever was behind the murders had to have left something behind, something only a smart, observant person would pick up on. Brandon counted himself as both smart and observant and therefore he felt like the killer was laughing at him, jeering that he wasn't smart enough.

But Brandon _was_ smart. _And I'll prove it by finding you before you get too far,_ he added silently to himself. He began to leave the room, when something caught his eye.

It was a newspaper, yesterday's edition of _Nintendo Times. _It had been folded to the games section, where the crossword puzzle, the Sudoku challenge, Bridge scenarios, Jumble and other games were on it. Whoever had been reading the paper obviously had the intent to do any of these games.

Except that there was no mark on the page at all. None, even though the page had been folded so that only the games section was showing. Curiously, Brandon stared at it. Why would it be folded to the games section, when the person hadn't even played any games on it? Were they trying to hide something in the newspaper? If so, why didn't they just throw it away? It could be nothing but...

He flipped the newspaper open and then began to rapidly flip through the pages but he didn't have to flip long until he realized what was being hidden. It wasn't an incriminating article. No, it was something weirder.

There were words cut up from each article with almost laser-like precision. Random words. Somebody had cut them out and collected them. What were the words?

That was definitely strange. Brandon's mind was racing with possibilities, but he decided to figure it out later. So he took the paper and tucked it into his pocket for safekeeping and moved along.

* * *

><p>"Where are your friends?" Captain Falcon demanded for the fifth time. His dark eyes bore into Rio's eyes dangerously who gave a huge gulp. She didn't know what to say.<p>

"We told you, Joeb fell sick after eating the filet, so the others took him up," Cammy cut in defiantly.

"Yeah," Drey said. "Leave Rio alone." She glowered at Captain Falcon.

If she thought that the acclaimed racer would just back off she was wrong. Instead he rounded on her. "I find it hard to believe that practically all of your friends left just because of one person's incapability to digest the fish," he said icily.

"Tell us the truth, and maybe then we'll leave you alone," DK said, his tone almost as harsh as Captain Falcon's.

Rio cowered. She wished that she was as strong as Cammy and Drey to fight back but she was actually terrible at confrontations especially when she was forced to lie. It wasn't in her.

"You can't possibly expect us to believe that their disappearance has nothing to do with what's on the ceiling," Metaknight added broodingly. Rio couldn't tell whether or not Metaknight was angry too; his voice always sounded like he was brooding.

At that, Drey faltered but Cammy surprisingly didn't.

"It's what they told us," she said, her chin sticking out defiantly. "Instead of accusing us, why don't you try finding out where that arrow is pointed, hm?" she challenged. She tossed her hair over her shoulders, the perfect picture of childish defiance. But her eyes were narrowed as dangerously as Captain Falcon's.

"She has a point," Olimar piped up. "We can't go making any accusations until we find out what the arrow is for."

"But what if it's a trap?" Ness asked fearfully. The memory of discovering Sean's body was still fresh on his mind.

"Jig! Jiggly! Jigglypuff!" Jigglypuff countered, determinedly.

"Jigglypuff's right," Link said. Not for the first time did Cammy wish that she had the wristwatch that all the Smashers wore. Not only did they tell the time, but they also served as communicators, and its most impressive feature allowed all the Smashers to understand one another regardless of language barriers. This explained why all Smashers could communicate and understand Mr. Game and Watch, ROB and even the Pokemon who could only ever say their own names. But whatever Pikachu, Jigglypuff and the rest of the Pokemon said would forever be a mystery for Cammy. She could only guess what they were trying to say by picking up clues from their tone and facial expressions.

"What did she say?" Drey asked.

Link wasn't looking at her when he responded, "It doesn't matter if it's a trap. We still need to see if everybody's okay."

"Okay, what can we do to help?" Drey asked eagerly. She counted it as a sign that Link responding to her was a good thing.

This time Link's eyes sliced towards her's and his eyes, normally a blue that reminded her of a warm beach, were now glacial. "You can help by doing nothing. You've already done enough."

The comment stung more than it should have. "But..." she said, her confidence faltering. Rio frowned at Link's attitude.

"I didn't expect you to be such a jerk at a time like this!" She burst out, surprising everybody including herself. She didn't mean to say it out loud, but every part of her was thinking it. "We said we wanted to help, so let us help you!"

Link looked startled before his face turned hard. "This is none of your business," he said in a clipped voice.

Samus coughed and stood between Link and Rio. "Okay people, calm down. Look, we need to work together. I agree that we haven't been the best of hosts so far, but now we need to cooperate. People are dying here. This isn't any time to argue or to view each other with distrust." Her blue eyes flickered. "No more secrets, okay? Please tell us what you know and we'll include you in as much as we can."

Rio's eyes met Samus's. They were open, trusting and none of the coldness that she was known for as a reputed bounty hunter, was in them right now. This was what compelled Rio to say, "The others are searching for the killer right now. Or at least some of them are. Brandon's gone, so the others went to go look for him."

Samus's eyes widened. "Brandon's gone? What do you mean?" She asked. She felt a certain fondness for the boy. If Samus's life had been normal, she thought, she might have spent her childhood and teenage years with the same interests as Brandon.

"He took off on his own," Rio said. "The others went to go look for him to see if he was okay."

"He went alone by himself?" Wolf asked nastily. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all."

"If I want your opinion, O'Donnell I'll ask for it," Samus snapped, shutting him up. Everybody knew not to mess with Samus when she used that tone of voice. Oblivious to the way everybody quieted down, she tapped her chin, thinking deeply. Finally she rose her head and turned to Captain Falcon and Snake who were standing beside her.

"Captain Falcon, Snake, come with me to the lab. The rest of you," She said, turning on the Smashers. "I want you to divide yourselves into three groups and I want Drey, Cammy and Rio to be divided into these groups. Search the grounds, the forest, the lakes, anywhere you can find. And make sure that our guests are safe first and foremost. Find them and make sure they are not harmed."

With that she turned her heel and stalked out, closely flanked by Captain Falcon and Snake, the latter of who looked slightly annoyed that he was taking commands from her.

* * *

><p>The trail of blood was getting heavier now and a strange smell was assailing Joeb's nostrils. He knew the smell, had smelt it many times before. He tried to inhale deeply to calm his senses, but breathing slowly and deeply only made the smell more intense. His experiences in the army told him it was too late to save anyone at this point. He began to tremble violently.<p>

It was Lynn who noticed his symptoms first. She could sense the way his mind was beginning to decline into insanity. She knew what it was, had read it in psychology books. They called it PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder. It normally rendered a person a complete mess of violent emotions and sometimes they hallucinated, thinking they were still in the war.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly. Joeb looked at her, but in the dim light all she seemed to be was a ghostly apparition.

"No," he gasped. In his mind's eye, he could see war all around her with the stench of burning flesh taking up his senses. Gunfire, dust swirling everywhere coating everything and a blind panic creeping on him.

He blinked and the war was gone.

But the sweet, sickly stink of burning flesh remained. "He's already dead," he said, his voice level.

"What do you mean?" Ri asked fearfully. "How do you know?"

Joeb stared at the floor. There were claw marks of blood on the floor, as though the victim had tried so hard to escape his attacker. He closed his eyes, breathing in through his mouth to avoid the scent. "There's too much blood on the floor," he said. "But have you realized there have been no screams? Whimpers? Moans? There are no noises coming from him. He's dead, and judging by the temperature and smell, I know how he died."

Ri shivered. The truth was staring her straight in the face, but she didn't want to admit it. "Maybe they bound him up and gagged him," she whispered.

"No," Joeb said clearly. "The murderer had an intent to kill. He's dead. Can't you smell it? Can't you smell the burnt flesh?"

"You're saying he's been burnt alive in the boiler," Lynn stated bluntly. Ri flinched.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." He wiped the sweat from his face. It was boiling hot in here. "If he'd been put in there and if he was still alive he'd be screaming his face off. But he's not." He felt sick to his stomach but was careful not to show it. "Not anymore."

Ri let out a hastily stifled sob. "We don't know that yet," she protested. "We have to find them first."

Joeb didn't say anything. He was over thirty, but sometimes he still remembered how teenagers were. They all felt like they were invincible, like they could never die. Death was for older people. Wario couldn't have been older than twenty five.

He sighed and they continued forward. Ri tried to ignore how the claw marks suddenly became more insistent and then gradually stopped until the claw marks stopped. And then they finally reached the boiler, the smell at its strongest now. There was a burnt body just outside. It had been burnt so badly that it was hardly identifiable except for the fact that the person was extremely rotund and short and had been lain on the floor so that its back faced the air. A bright, shiny red apple had been forced into the body's mouth. He'd been dressed to look like a pig.

How sick was that? The serial killer definitely had a twisted sense of humor.

Ri whimpered and closed her eyes, turning away from the scene. It was an awful sight to her. Joeb patted her on the shoulder awkwardly. Lynn couldn't help but look at the scene with a sort of morbid fascination.

There was a message on the linoleum floor waiting for them. A message that was written in blood.

The writing, Lynn noticed with a faint sort of interest, was precise, almost like a font. It was different from the chaotic slashing that was instilled in Sean's chest.

**DINNER IS SERVED.**

* * *

><p><strong>Whaaattt? It's pretty easy to guess who the carcass belongs to. Thoughts? Originally, I wasn't going to post the last part, but I figured that you guys deserved it since I made you wait so long! Sorry! I was on vacation for about two and a half weeks in a place that had no computers, plus I'm working on other stuff.<strong>

**While I'm on the subject of what I've been working on, go check out CEObrainz's "Everybody's Brawl"! Its a huge collaboration where many awesome writers have written a one-shot for each Smasher and the story of how they got into the Smash business. I had the honor of writing Captain Falcon and enjoyed it immensely! It's pretty long, as there are so many Smashers to cover, but each piece is truly unique and a work of art. So don't forget to check it out!**

**As always, if you have any concerns or criticisms, please don't hesitate to tell me as long as it's constructive. Thanks!**


	7. Emergency Protocol

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related.**

* * *

><p>Night had long settled in on the Smash Mansion's grounds when Drey found herself exiting the mansion to search with her group. It was a cool, damp sort of darkness, and the moon was hidden by a haze of clouds that blanketed the sky. It was hard to see anything due to the moon, but Drey herself wasn't looking for anything. What was the point? What were they searching for?<p>

She turned to look at her group mates which consisted of only five other people; Peach, Pikachu, Red, Kirby and Toon Link. She knew that five other Smashers, along with Cammy were searching the ground's backyard which consisted of a garden, and then a little ways off a forest that tapered off to a lake where a dock sat.

The majority of the Smashers (Of which included Link, Drey was quick to note) along with Rio had opted to stay indoors to search for the rest of her friends and to try finding out anything else there that would help them. Drey couldn't blame them. She figured that if there was anything that would be found, it would be in the Mansion itself.

So why was she outdoors? It was a good question. There was virtually no hope of finding anything outside that would help them find out what happened. Still, there were two reasons Drey wanted to go outside.

The first reason was Link.

Link, with his blond hair, depthless blue eyes, that perpetual easy smile and normally easygoing nature. Everything about Link had initially drawn Drey to him. There was just something about the way he held himself that attracted her to him. Seeing him in matches, she felt as if she'd had a connection to him somehow. Was it just a normal fan's reaction? She didn't think it was possible to feel this attached to a person, and yet here she was with him always on her mind.

That was before she met him.

Now she just wasn't sure about her feelings for him. She still thought about him quite often, but most of her thoughts nowadays were laced in pain. Link hated her for something that was a part of her. And if he couldn't accept the darker parts of her, she reflected sadly and somewhat angrily, then she had to stop trying to vie for his affections. She had to back off.

The way he'd dismissed her back at the mansion had been the final straw for Drey. It was that moment, looking into his now icy blue eyes, that she realized that she had to forget about him quickly. So even though she wanted desperately to stay in the Mansion to have a look around and to do it by Link's side, she knew that the best thing for her well being was to stay away from him.

Which was why, she thought to herself as she pulled her long blonde hair up in a pony, she was peering uselessly through the blanket of darkness outside.

The second reason, which was a lot more important to the case at hand, was how she felt when she was outdoors. Many people forgot that even though Dreygon was a princess, she was raised outdoors by some of the most powerful dragons. She wasn't your average princess for this very reason.

"Ivysaur, I want you and Charizard to scout the trees," Red quietly addressed two of the three pokemon that he'd called out. "Squirtle, you stick with me." The cute little turtle nodded in understanding while Ivysaur scampered off to the trees. Charizard grumbled softly and with a mighty swish of its wings, it took off and soar lowly over the forest. It began to scan the tops of the trees.

"What now?" Princess Peach asked, shivering in the darkness. Drey suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

It wasn't that Drey had a problem with Peach or Zelda personally; It was more about the fact that Peach and Zelda constantly needed saving that irritated her. Drey knew that the princesses were probably not total damsels in distress - After all Peach had been close to winning last year's tournament and Zelda had actually won the Team Battle tournament with her partner, who had happened to be Link. But they were both constantly getting kidnapped. It bothered Drey that they'd made the title, "princess" synonymous with "damsel in distress".

"Pika, pikachu!" Pikachu said, a small frown playing over its mouth.

"What did he say?" Drey asked, distracted by her thoughts.

"He said there's probably nothing out here that would help us figure out what's going on," Toon Link translated.

"He has a point, you know," Kirby said. "Even if whoever is behind these attacks hid something for us to find outside, we'd probably never find it especially since we don't even know what we're looking for. What if whoever it is, buried it in the dirt? Then we'd never know." He rubbed a pink paw over his mouth thoughtfully.

Drey knew all of this already, had thought about it before Samus had ordered a search party to look outdoors. "I'm going to go search through the woods," she announced. Everybody looked at her in surprise.

"You can't go there alone!" Red burst out, astonished.

Drey fixed him with a look. "Why not?" she asked.

"Well, because," he muttered, quailing underneath her threatening gaze.

Seeing that Drey was going to go whether the others liked it or not, Peach said, "At least take one of us along with you. I don't feel comfortable with you going alone. Who knows what lies in there..." she broke off shuddering. She didn't feel compelled to add that Drey herself made Peach uneasy. Zelda had already told her how she'd almost gotten killed by the dragon princess.

Drey wanted to retort that any kind of wilderness had always been her home, but thought better of it. She knew Peach was just trying to be kind. So she shrugged carelessly and said, "Who would like to come alone with me, then?"

There was a silence as none of the Smashers were willing to go forth. Finally, Toon Link stepped forward. "I'll go," he said bravely.

He was hardly the person Drey would have chosen, but she wasn't going to complain. She had to admit, the woods _did _look scary. "Fine, be my guest," she said carelessly. The young boy scampered after her, trying to keep up with her long strides.

They walked in silence for a moment. Then, "My older self seems to hate you."

Drey blanched. She hadn't expected Toon Link to broach the topic so quickly. "Yes," she muttered. "Well you know why." Toon Link had, after all, witnessed her transformation into a dragon.

They were entering the woods now. Drey fought to maintain her composure. She'd seen Zelda and Peach and the way they always seemed so... well... Princesslike.

Toon Link unsheathed his sword, hacking away at some moss up ahead. "You think he's overreacting." It wasn't a question.

It was amazing how kids sometimes seemed to understand better than adults.

"Well, it was an accident," Drey said, pushing back some blond hair that had escaped its elastic band. "He acts like it all happened on purpose."

* * *

><p>Cammy took a deep breath, inhaling the heaviness of the night air. Darkness didn't frighten her much as it normally should with little children. Precious little frightened her. After all, she wasn't like your average little girl. Her blue eyes gleamed as they stared impassively at the lake.<p>

"Um, somebody should check the garden," Marth said. Though it was an order, he made it sound like a question. His pale complexion seemed to glow with nervousness. Cammy was surprised; She'd been to one of Marth's matches (The one that she'd coincidentally bought a winning ticket to) and he always looked unwaveringly calm even as he fought. It was strange to see this new side to him.

Zelda asked, "Do you think anything would be outside here?" Since the moon was covered, rendering the area almost pitch black, she had conjured up a ball of flame in her right palm and stretched it out in front of them. Its light enabled them to see almost ten feet ahead of them.

"I don't think so," Bowser grunted. "But then again, if _I _didn't want any evidence to be found, I'd dump it in a place easy to get rid of. So I'd dump it in a lake."

"The lake," Olimar repeated slowly. He frowned. "That would make sense. Except for the fact that if somebody did dump all the evidence in the lake, it would take ages to get it out." They all peered out to the vast lake which was at least half a mile deep and spanned ten miles across.

"Puff, Jiggly?" Jigglypuff asked gloomily, her luminous eyes looking downcast.

"She sarcastically asked if anybody wanted to swim in the lake," Olimar translated quickly, looking at Cammy's bemused expression.

They all stared gloomily at the lake.

Cammy could easily see that her group was in serious need of cheering up. So she stretched her mouth into a smile, the way she had so many times before.

"Come on guys," she said, standing in front of them. "We have to try! This isn't the end yet."

Marth gave her a half-hearted smile. "Of course it isn't." Cammy knew he was just saying that to placate her. Because she was a little kid. _Why_ did adults insist on treating her like one? She couldn't wait to grow up and be taken seriously.

She tugged at one of her brown pigtails, trying to calm herself down. She took a deep breath, thinking quickly as she let it out. Then she said, "Seriously guys. Who are you?"

"Marth Lowell, ruler of Altea," he responded.

"Jigglypuff!"

"Princess Zelda, ruler of Hyrule, and whatever many forms it takes upon, and also the possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom."

"Captain Olimar."

"King Bowser." Bowser grunted.

Cammy smiled. "Of course. And each one of you play an important part in your stories. I may not know_ everything_ about you, but I do know one thing. I know that all of you didn't become who you were because you gave up." She rounded on Zelda. "I used to want to _be_ you, you know. I know a lot of people don't like you because you always have to be saved by Link but it's not like you asked to be kidnapped. It happens, because your enemies know who you are. But you never let that stop you. When you were kidnapped, did you just sit around? Did any of you sit around when things got bad?"

They all just stared at her.

"No! You all fought to win, to understand the situation you were under. Even you," she said to Jigglypuff who had opened her mouth in protest. "You came here because you wanted to be a star. You all don't understand why you have so many fans." She sighed. "But I do."

She made sure to look each of them in the eye. "Even when you failed, you still got up. You still survived." She finished softly. Her gaze lingered on Marth and he finally met her eyes. Determination replaced the hopelessness in his blue eyes. She was surprised how hard her words had hit home.

"Smash Mansion is under threat," he said. "Let's find the cause and eliminate it. This is our home!"

Cammy felt a fierce rush of pride at the fact that she'd managed to cheer them up. "Yay!" She exclaimed. She bounced ahead, leading the way to the docks.

Marth stared after her, smiling. _Thanks Cammy. You're not such a kid after all._

* * *

><p>"Rio?"<p>

The angel turned around at the sound of her voice; it was Link. "What is it?" she inquired warily, fixing the elf with her unwavering gaze. Since coming here, she had to admit that Link's first impressions weren't doing her judgement on him any favors. She was fiercely loyal after all, and even though Drey looked nothing like her sister Dark, she couldn't help but compare the two. They were both quite similar in some ways and while one was her actual older sister, the other almost felt like one.

"I want you, Game and Watch and Ike to go up to the lab where Samus, Snake and Captain Falcon are. See if they've figured out anything, will you?"

She felt herself redden; she wanted to go yet at the same time she didn't. "Okay," she heard herself mumble.

The three trudged up the stairs in silence that began to stretch thinly. If Mr. Game and Watch felt the awkwardness, he did not bleep anything.

After some time though, Rio felt herself growing frustrated. Stealing a glance sideways at Ike, she was irrationally irritated that he appeared calm and not at all flustered. Was she the only one who could not stand the silence? Several times she wanted to say something but couldn't figure out what to say. She spent several moments constructing a sentence in her brain and finally she said in as casually a voice as she could muster, "So, who do you think is behind this?" _Clever, Rio. _

He looked surprised that she'd broken the silence but then a second later he shrugged, not looking at her. "Could be anyone."

_Thanks for that input, Captain Obvious._

"Do you think it's one of the Smashers?" she pressed, not wanting to revert back into silence.

They reached the end of the staircase. He turned around to face her. "The Smashers would never do that. I know them," he said confidently.

The way he seemed so sure of it, irritated her. "So you think it's one of us?" she asked pointedly.

He looked startled. "I don't think it's _you_. I know you."

"Oh really?" Rio cocked her hip and crossed her arms in a challenging pose. It wasn't what Ike had said, but rather what he had left out. He hadn't answered her question really, which meant he probably did suspect her friends. "Then who do you think it is? Brandon? Or no, Drey perhaps? Maybe Elizebeth?" Her voice raised a notch higher with each accusation.

Ike's eyebrows shot up at her hostility. "What is wrong with you?" He demanded. "How well do you know your group? You don't know them at all, do you? So why are you sticking up for them?"

Rio laughed; she had no idea where all this rage was coming from. Or maybe she did, and refused to acknowledge it. "They're my friends," she said stubbornly. "And for the record, Ike," she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she walked past him heatedly. "You don't know anything about me."

"That isn't fair," he hissed through his teeth. A large, warm hand grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back so that he could get a proper look at her. Now they were only a foot apart. Mr. Game and Watch bleeped something in alarm, but Rio couldn't tell what it was and she wasn't sure that she even had the brains to figure it out. Her pulse had started to race erratically. When was the last time she'd been this close to Ike? Probably during the Subspace. And that had been years ago. She wasn't sure whether to slap him away or remain there.

"Let go of me," she said furiously, trying to tug her arm away from him. She cursed his inhumane strength more than once.

"I don't _get _you, Rio. First you push me for suspects, and when I give you my opinion you shoot it down and accuse me of being unfair. What's bugging you? Am I missing something?" His eyes bore into hers. He looked angry.

"The fact that you have to even _ask_ is what's bugging me!" she exclaimed, trying once again to tug her arm out of Ike's grasp. The more flustered she felt, the more she felt as if she had to get away. But it was no use; his grip was too strong.

Ike's eyes softened suddenly as he watched her struggle. "This isn't about the attacks. It's about Peach, isn't it?" he asked quietly.

She instantly stopped struggling. Because now that he said it, it sounded ridiculous.

And also very true.

She stopped struggling and fixed him with a glare. Might as well get this over with now. "Was nothing between us real? Was I the only person that imagined the spark between us?" Each sentence came from a place deep inside her. These were questions she thought would never surface and yet now they did. "I thought about you every single day," she said tremblingly.

Ike opened his mouth before shutting it wordlessly. His grip on her arm loosened but he didn't let go of it. "Rio," he said, his voice unnaturally thin. "You didn't imagine it. It was real. But," he said. He paused, trying to marshal his thoughts. "I had to move on. I couldn't wait for you, especially when I didn't know if you were even coming back. I thought you were gone for good. And then Peach asked me out... So..." He trailed off, finishing lamely.

So that was it. That was the reason why. Rio turned her face away from him so that he wouldn't see the expression that had slowly begun to spider across her face. "I see," she simply said. To be this close to him and not being able to have him was torture. So she did something she had done years ago. She pulled her arm free and left before he could see the tears fall.

* * *

><p>"Master Hand, there's been a possible death."<p>

"_What?!_"

Samus closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. She quickly relayed the events that had happened. "Can you come down here?"

There was a heavy silence on the other end of the phone. Finally he spoke, "Look, Crazy Hand isn't in good condition. I thought it was just the usual burns, but he's in really bad shape. He might not make it. I need to be here."

Samus tried to comprehend what Master Hand was saying. "So what you're saying is..." she said slowly.

"What I'm saying is that I'm placing my faith you all. Especially you, Mario, Link, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Fox and Pikachu. You seven are responsible for putting a stop to this."

"Master Hand, don't **do** this! We need you!" Samus cried out, panicked. Captain Falcon and Snake both shot her a look of surprise; Samus was hardly one to panic or show any sort of fear. "I don't know where to begin. What do I do?"

"You _must_, Samus. We're all counting on you. I might drop in once I find out if Crazy will make it or not. In the mean time you're on your own. Got it?"

Samus hung her head and took a deep, shuddering breath. When she looked up, her face was a mask of steel. "Of course, Master." She ended the call and turned around.

"He's not coming?" Captain Falcon inquired.

Samus shook her head. "It's up to us now." She could not believe that Master Hand had left them with a madman on the loose in the Mansion, but now was not the time to dwell on her Master's inability to come in their time of need.

The doors to the lab automatically opened when the three approached the lab, but before they stepped in, she heard Mr. Game and Watch and Ike call out.

"Samus!"

She turned around in surprise.

"Oh good, you two are here," she said crisply. "I need you two to pass on a message to Mario, Link, Kirby, DK, Fox and Pikachu to come up here to discuss some issues. After that, gather everyone you know to convene in the Great Hall. We are on our own. Once I am done here, we must discuss protocols."

Ike and Game and Watch looked at her, stupefied.

"Go!" she barked, making them flinch. They scurried away.

"What about us?" Captain Falcon asked apprehensively.

She rounded on Captain Falcon. "Go outdoors, get the Smashers and fans indoors. You," she said, facing Snake. "Find the first person you spot and the both of you must go to Master Hand's office. Get the Chosen Ones' files and bring them to me. Got it?"

Snake nodded. "And let everybody know that it is dangerous to roam the corridors alone. From now on, everybody must be with somebody that they trust and know."

Snake nodded again and began running down the hallway. Samus watched him leave before walking into the lab, her thoughts spinning out of control.

* * *

><p>They all stared grimly at the body. At long last, Ri had managed to stop crying, but her horror was still evident all over her face.<p>

Lyn was the first to break the silence. "We need to tell somebody before they find us down here."

That seemed to break Joeb and Ri out of their reverie. "You're right," Joeb finally responded, glancing at Ri who was trying to stop the hiccups.

"A-are you sure... It's Wario?" she asked, quivering.

"We'll figure that out later," Joeb responded. He knew that Ri was undergoing some serious mental trauma and that the only way to prevent it from messing her head up even further was to take her away. He grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and began to steer her away quickly.

As for Lyn, she gave one last long glance at the body. It was full of curiosity and fascination. Then, she turned around swiftly and drifted away.

When the party of three at last reached the outside of the basement, they were met by Pit who took one glance at Ri's shaken expression and demanded, "What happened?"

Lyn and Joeb took turns to explain what they had found. "We think it's Wario, but we can't be sure," Joeb finished as calmly as he could.

Pit narrowed his eyes at the three of them. His wings tensed in anger and suspicion. "What were you three doing down there in the first place?"

Lyn and Joeb exchanged glances; Now that they thought about it, it seemed stupid to go off looking for answers without a Smasher present to attest that they were completely innocent.

"It was my idea. If you're going to blame anybody, blame me." Ri spoke. Her voice was unnaturally high-pitched, but it was determined. "We noticed the arrow before you did. We wanted to check it out."

"And you didn't think to bring a fighter along with you?" Pit asked, rounding on her. Once again, his sky blue eyes found the feather perched on her ear.

"I can fight," Joeb responded firmly.

Lyn added, "I too, am not completely defenseless."

Pit snorted. "Be real. You may know a couple of tricks, but you two aren't _real_ fighters. You're not us." Then his expression changed abruptly. "Or maybe," he said softly, his eyes flitting back to the feather. "Maybe you just think you're invincible to do whatever you want."

Ri's eyebrows shot up in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked vehemently. "I don't understand your problem with me."

Pit snarled, "Don't act like you're ignorant of _that_." His wings stretched out menacingly as he jabbed a finger at the feather behind her ear. "Don't tell me you don't know what that is!"

Ri's eyes transformed from confusion to anger. "It's just a stupid feather. And I'll thank you not to make a big deal about it, because that's all it is!"

Pit shook his head angrily. "Playing innocent, are we, Riina? You _theif._"

* * *

><p>"What do we tell the others?" Jeka asked his two companions as they exited the door. "We didn't find Brandon but I think we found something else far more interesting, all the same."<p>

Zack shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets and hunching his shoulders up. For once, he had nothing witty or lighthearted to say. He cast a wary eye at the room they'd just exited and shivered involuntarily.

"Perhaps we should just focus on finding Brandon first," Elizebeth said nervously. Scarcely had she said those words when she felt something pink and hard knock into her. She would have fallen to the floor if it weren't for Zack who managed to catch her at the last second by the shoulders. The person who had bumped into her looked somewhat familiar, Elizebeth noted when she saw her straighten up.

"Rio?" Jeka asked, astonished.

But the angel probably didn't hear him because she continued to run down the corridor in a very agitated state.

They all looked at each other, confused. "What happened to her?" Zack asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Beats me," Elizebeth said, annoyed that Rio hadn't bothered to apologize. Honestly, what else was new? People were always rude to her.

"You three!"

The three fans spun around at the commanding voice. It was Captain Falcon who looked slightly out of breath. As he approached them he looked at the door that the three were in front of. "What are you doing here?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," all three of them responded but in three very different ways. Jeka was smooth, Zack defensive and Elizebeth stammered it.

Falcon raised an eyebrow. "You can't be wandering around here alone."

"We aren't," Jeka pointed out. He gestured to Zack and Elizebeth. "We're together."

A muscle jumped in Falcon's jaw which surprised the three; Falcon was generally an amiable person to be around. "I don't want to hear it. From now on, all three of you must be accompanied by a Smasher. The Mansion is under attack and we're trying to fix the situation as soon as possible."

Jeka opened his mouth in protest but Falcon interrupted him. "Follow me."

"Where are you taking us?" Elizebeth asked, some of her older iciness injected in it. She was surprised she still had it in her. After all the events that had unfolded, she had thought she would never revert back to her usual self.

Falcon said, not bothered to turn around, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Seeing no choice, the three followed in silence, not daring to look at each other.

* * *

><p>They had reached a clearing where Drey felt certain was good enough. She stopped in her tracks to smell the clean night air. Yes, this would certainly do.<p>

"Why'd we stop?" Toon Link asked, his eyes darting about like a frightened rabbit.

Drey turned around, her eyes glowing brightly at Toon Link. "Can't you feel it?" she whispered.

"What?" Toon Link was thoroughly nonplussed. Drey's face looked unusually enthusiastic and he let his fingers trail to his sword casually. Just in case, he told himself.

"The magic?"

"What are you talking about?"

Drey whipped around back again. "I would have thought, you as a possessor of a third of the Triforce would be able to sense some magic here."

Toon Link shrugged, and his fingers ached to draw his sword. But he mustn't. Not yet. "I don't have much magical power," he admitted. "Zelda's usually in charge of that kind of stuff."

Drey said nothing. She had learned, growing up in the wilderness that magic was present in the earth's very core and because she developed such a close bond with the dragons and nature, she was especially attuned to sensing it. On the surface, the magic was usually negligible to draw upon, but there were some places where there was more than enough to perform simple tricks.

Like here.

"I need you to be quiet Toon Link. I have to concentrate."

"Why?" Toon Link asked. His fingers grasped the hilt of his sword. His other hand went to his shield.

"I'm contacting an old friend of mine."

* * *

><p>Rio wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered violently. She tried hard not to cry but as she approached a deserted and dark end of the hall she couldn't help it. The tears escaped her eyes as she went in deeper. She felt empty and this was worse than feeling angry. All along, she had blamed Ike. He was a womanizer, she had thought, a player, a flirt, a cheat. And that Peach!<p>

But now that she knew the truth, Rio felt simply hollow. She hadn't wanted to confront it, but Ike had told it to her plainly; she couldn't expect him to wait for her. And he hadn't. This wasn't his fault but this only made it worse.

Because it was really her fault. She was responsible for her heartbreak. It was she who left due to her angelic duties and it was she who had to pay the ultimate price. Why was life so unfair? She walked past empty, unlit rooms on the main floor and then she heard somebody whispering, causing the hair on the back of her neck to prick.

For one absurdly naive moment, she considered calling out but at the last moment, she pulled her words back in. She strained to hear the whispering.

"Ri..." She began to walk closer to the voice. "Ri... o."

It was her name.

* * *

><p>"Dioclopse, I am in great need of your help," Drey called out, after concentrating on her stone for nearly two minutes. It had been awhile since she'd last talked to her beloved dragons so the connection was harder to find. Still, the stone enabled her to talk and she sought advice. She had finally made up her mind to pursue the dragon that she least liked talking to, but she knew that it was completely necessary to do so. Dioclopse, she'd reasoned although she didn't like it, was the dragon of darkness. She figured that anybody who knew anything about what was going on at the mansion would be one who was associated by darkness and so she waited with bated breath to see if the normally ill-tempered dragon would respond.<p>

_"I am here Princess... What is it you need?"_

The voice was smooth, silky and loud enough for Toon Link to hear. He jumped in surprise and looked around to see where it belonged, but there was nobody there. It was a disembodied voice. A breeze swept up and rippled through the grass, making the young Smasher shiver in his boots. How did you defend against an opponent you couldn't even see, he wondered as he warily ducked behind his shield.

Although Drey was headstrong and not much really scared her, her voice still held a tremor in it when she said, "Strange things are happening at the Mansion. Already two people have died."

_"And it soon may be three if nobody takes action, my dear."_

A shiver ran through Drey. "What do you mean?" she called out.

_"You mean to ask me who the culprit of these most heinous acts are, do you not?" _Dioclopse said, ignoring her question completely. He sounded bored. _"That must be the only reason you have awakened me._

"Well, yes," Drey admitted.

_"Foolish girl... I can seek out the darkness young one. But I can't tell you the exact whereabouts especially when it seems that many of your companions have darkness within them. Few are entirely pure. I can tell you one thing though. The one you seek is not to be trifled with. A greater evil lurks within and this person cannot be saved at all from it. This person was born for evil. Beware of those you think close to you..."_

The magic was fading away. Drey was forced to let go of the connection. She slumped to her knees. Toon Link approached her warily.

"What a waste of time," she muttered to herself. "He couldn't even give me a gender. We already know the person is pure evil!"

Toon Link didn't know what to say to make her feel better. "Well, we weren't entirely sure before. Maybe the guy was trying to exact revenge on only a couple of people."

Drey got up. "Yeah," she said. She still felt disheartened.

"And besides, we have to hurry," Toon Link pressed. "We have to go back to the Mansion. Your dragon friend said somebody might be in big trouble!"

Drey straightened. "You're right. At least he wasn't totally useless!" With that she began to run, Toon Link hot on her heels.

* * *

><p>"Rio." The whisper was more insistent, urgent. Rio could hear it coming from behind a couch. She warily approached it to see Brandon crouched behind it.<p>

"Brandon?!" she squealed aloud.

"Shh!" He whispered furiously. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of plain sight.

"What's going on?" she said in a low voice.

"I heard something," Brandon said. "I don't know who it is, but they seem to be searching for me. I've been hiding here ever since, hoping they'd leave."

"Well whoever it is, is gone," Rio said. She began to stand up. "They would've got me with all the noise I was making."

"Wait! Rio! Be careful!" Brandon stood up too, but at that precise moment there was a firing of lasers that narrowly missed Rio by centimeters. "Run!" he yelled. She didn't need to be told twice; all thoughts of Ike and her heartbreak vanished. At that moment she had to get out.

They ran towards the door but at that moment the door swung shut effectively trapping them in the darkness. Brandon swore under his breath.

"What now?" Rio asked nervously.

"We have to get to that door," Brandon responded, trying to stay calm. "Stay by me," he said. "And try not to make any noise. Maybe they can't see in the darkness too. We'll have to feel our way around." Very quietly, they began to tiptoe towards where they'd spotted the door. Brandon prayed that there were no objects in his path. Their progress was slow but sure, until he stepped on a controller and crushed the joystick on it. The noise of it seemed loud and oppressive. Brandon jumped backward, jumping into Rio who gasped in alarm. A shot rang by Brandon's ear and he completely lost it. He began to ran blindly towards the door, not caring how much noise he was making.

"Brandon, wait!" Rio wailed, but Brandon didn't stop until he'd gotten to the door. Shots were firing everywhere around him but blood was pounding against his ears, making it difficult for him to understand anything else. He began to feel for the door. It was a long arduous process to finally find the doorknob and when he finally wrenched it open, light flooded in exposing a sliver of room where Rio was standing. He caught a glimpse of Rio, her face blank with surprise.

But it wasn't the most surprising thing about her. The most surprising thing was the blood dripping down her face. It took a heart's beat for Brandon to realize that one of the shots had finally found its mark. He watched Rio fall to her knees, her face not crumpling in pain, but in faint wonderment. Then she slumped forward. Brandon began to feel lightheaded. He began to chuckle, before laughing out loud. Then he slumped forward against the open door, shutting it fully separating him from the murderer and Rio.

Separating himself from reality and subconscious. Because he had just fainted.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh em gee. Sorry this chapter took forever guys! I was distracted by another story, and then I wasn't feeling very motivated about this one. I still am not but I felt it'd be a disservice if I didn't update. So here I am updating. Well anyways, please review. Sorry once again for the delay!<strong>


	8. One Step Ahead

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related.**

* * *

><p>She could hear the ocean's roar in her ears and for a moment, she really thought that's where she was. She could almost smell the salt, the wilderness, the breeze of the waves crashing around her.<p>

But then she opened her eyes and there was Palutena in front of her, regal, beautiful and majestic, sitting on a throne. There was no ocean. Only white.

"My Goddess," she tried to bend on one knee as she had so many times before but discovered she did not have knees. Serenity was replaced by the quickening of a pulse that could only be described as fear. But when she looked down, she discovered she didn't have a pulse. She didn't even have a body. She was nothing. "What's happening?"

The Goddess Palutena only smiled as she had many times before. _It is not your time yet__, young one. Recover._

"What's happening to me?" Rio's voice cracked. "Where am I? Am I dead?"

_That is up to you to decide... If you give up now, you have died a hero's death. I would welcome you to the top gates of heaven, where all the angels go. But you will never see your friends again. And they might never catch the killer without your help. You must give them something Rio._

In a flash, Rio remembered the bright red pain that had clouded her mind. Seeing Brandon's horrified face before it crumpled into insanity. What had he seen? Had he seen her die?

And was she really dead?

She thought about Palutena's options. On one hand, she really wanted heaven. No pain, only the sound of the ocean to calm her down. It was a tempting offer. To come back to life would mean to go back to all that she left behind and as far as she knew, all that was there was death and the constant fear of death. And she wouldn't have to witness Ike with Peach anymore. The last part tore at her heart more than anything else.

Because as much as she hated Ike, as much as she wanted to strangle him, as much as it hurt her inconsolably to watch something that she couldn't have, she still couldn't bear to see him killed in a violent way. Or Drey. Or Cammy. Or anybody that she'd met here.

_What could I possibly give them if I survived?_ Rio wondered to herself.

She knew what the right decision was. But she wasn't sure whether she wanted to take it.

* * *

><p>"Are they alive?" Drey asked breathlessly.<p>

"I don't know," Samus snapped. She and Mario were in the infirmary. Samus's face looked haggard as she was on the hospital's computer that controlled the machines. Mario was wearing a pair of scrubs. Half his face was blocked by a surgical mask. He was doing something to Rio, but Drey couldn't see what it was. The medical tray next to him was covered in blood because of all the instruments he'd used on her so far. "Brandon's brain keeps sending off strange signals. I'm sure he's still alive, and his brain signals indicate he's not brain dead. But something must have made him react this way. It's possible he might have seen the killer. We won't know what's wrong with him until he wakes."

Drey's blood ran cold. "There's a possibility that he saw who it was?" She hugged herself. "Dammit!" she swore. "If only I'd gotten there sooner! What about Rio?"

Beside her Toon Link was waiting with pressed lips, fear etched all over his face. He had not said a word since they'd found Brandon unconscious. They'd found the door wide open and when they peered in, they saw Rio in her own blood. Drey nearly passed out herself, but she'd held it together. She wasn't aware of what happened after that. All she knew was what Toon Link had told her afterward. He had called for help. Samus had ran in with Donkey Kong and Bowser - The bulkiest Smashers she could find. Together, all of them had brought Rio and Brandon to the infirmary.

Samus's fingers stilled on the keyboard momentarily. "I don't know," she said quietly. She felt like like such a failure. How could she have let this happen under her command? This was all her fault. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself not to panic. _Maybe I can't be the leader after all. But who else can I rely on?__  
><em>

Drey felt her eyes burn and a minute later the tears came. "Oh dear Greeah, don't let her die," she prayed.

At that moment, Ike burst into the room followed by a slightly irate, yet worried Peach. "Where is she?" he asked.

Drey only pointed at the bed where Dr. Mario was working at. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to feel too annoyed. This was all Ike's fault. If he hadn't been so difficult and stupid, perhaps Rio would not have walked down that corridor alone.

She exhaled as she watched Peach put on a mask and wash her hands with antibacterial soap. Then she began operating as well on Dr Mario's other side. Drey had to admire the fact that she did not seem affected by the sight and stench of blood and flesh.

She felt a small, warm hand come on top of her's. It was Toon Link. "You don't look so well, Drey. Maybe you should get some sleep."

At the word, "sleep," Drey suddenly realized how fatigued she felt. Her muscles, which had been working well under the supplement of adrenaline, now felt loose and useless. _Sleep_... She felt like she hadn't done it in days.

...Maybe... Maybe just for a moment...

She could just close her eyes...

* * *

><p>Morning crept through the windows the following day, grasping the windowsills by its fingertips. Nobody wanted to wake up. Nobody wanted to hear the announcement that Mario - who hardly had any sleep, himself - was going to give. They all knew that Wario was dead, that Rio was in a comatose state and it was likely she would be that way for the rest of her life. Already, her hair was starting to change from pink to blue. Pit had said that sometimes, this happened in weakened states of angels.<p>

Nobody even liked Wario. Every Smasher couldn't even count the number of times they'd been duped by his monetary schemes and were still waiting for all the money he still owed them. But still... _It was Wario_.

Ri stared at her plate full of eggs. "You okay?" Zack asked.

She looked up at him, not registering his face. "What?" she croaked.

Of the three who had found the body, Ri was hit the hardest. Where had all her warmth and happiness gone?

Zack hesitated, for a moment before covering his hand over her's. He had hoped she would feel better upon human contact, but instead she flinched and swiped her hand away, nearly bumping into Joeb who was wolfing down his sausages. "Hey," Zack said, putting his hands up in a 'I'm unarmed' way.

Ri didn't meet his eyes. "Zack, I... I'm sorry. I can't..." she said. "I can't get that _smell_ out of my head. He smelled... He smelled awful." She shuddered, trying to keep the tears at bay.

Joeb's mouth was grim as he regarded her. "It's over, Ri. Nothing you can do about it now," he said.

Jeka was frowning, his arms crossed over his chest. He hadn't touched breakfast yet - Lynn could sense that something was troubling him and she decided to reassure him. "They say Brandon will be okay," she told him.

Jeka's eyes swiveled to her's, his eyes hard. "What?" he asked.

Lynn almost blanched at his rudeness but recovered quickly. "You must be troubled over your friend. You are... worried, yes? I can sense it."

Jeka rolled his eyes. "What are you? Lucario, now with your aura senses?" He muttered under his breath, "Freak..."

Lynn narrowed her eyes. She tried to tell herself that Jeka was just being mean because he was freaked out, but her anger towards him was overpowering any sane or rational thought. Coupled with the fact that she was feeling on edge... This wasn't going to be pretty. She could feel, see, and smell nothing but red.

"Lynn?" Cammy's voice came out as a warble.

Lynn blinked and the madness of the outrage she'd felt was gone. She turned to see a Cammy, whose eyes were wide and blank with fear.

"What?" Lynn asked, wondering for a moment if she were going insane. This wasn't the first time Lynn had almost been set off edge.

"N-nothing," Cammy responded. _Should I tell the others what I saw? _she wondered. She knew what she'd seen. She'd seen murder written across the pokemorph's eyes. She shuddered.

Jeka finally dug into his own eggs, completely unaware of what had transpired in Lynn and Cammy. He eyed Elizebeth, his eyes darkening.

"What's up?" Joeb asked Jeka, noticing the way he studied her.

Jeka bit his lip, then switched his eyes to Joeb. "Don't you think it's... weird?"

"What is?"

Jeka nodded towards Elizebeth who was sitting quite alone at her own table. She looked sick with fear and worry while nibbling on a piece of toast. "She was _there_ at the scene when Sean died. Yet nobody asked where she was during the time Wario could've died. Can't they all see it's her?"

Joeb studied Elizebeth as well for a long time. "Well," he began cautiously after a pause. "We don't know anything yet. Just because she was the first one to discover Sean's body..." he trailed off. "What makes you so certain she committed the murders?"

Jeka brushed his white bangs away from his face as he swallowed the last of his eggs. He faced Joeb with a raised eyebrow. "What makes you think that she _didn't_?"

"She didn't," Ri cut in unexpectedly. The look she gave Jeka was watery but still firm.

"How do you know, though?" Jeka pressed.

Ri shrugged. "I - That is to say, Zack, Pit, Lucas, Snake and I - we looked at her background file. There was nothing in there that suggested she's... crazy."

"You checked out her file?" Jeka asked, looking surprised. "You didn't look at the other's?"

Ri looked down at her hands, as if she'd found them very interesting. "No. We made a promise, Zack and I that we'd only look through her's and Sean's. At that time, we didn't think that we had a serial killer on the loose. We just thought..." she sighed, unable to complete her thought. Zack placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it comfortingly. This time, Ri didn't pull away.

Joeb regarded her for a moment. "That was very foolish. You should have looked through all of them. That way, we'd have a way of knowing what we were dealing with."

Zack glowered at him. "No," he said. "It's not our business to go into other people's private businesses. We need to trust one other. We can't believe that it was one of us. Besides," he said, looking over at the Smashers, who were also huddled together. "There's a strong possibility that _they're_ the ones who did it. They never wanted us here in the first place. Now one of us is dead, one of us may as well be, and one of us passed out from insanity. Meanwhile, what's _their_ death count? One. And that's Wario. Who liked Wario? So far it looks like it could be one of them."

Nobody said anything when Zack completed his little speech. Joeb stroked his chin thoughtfully, Ri simply looked distraught, and Jeka was playing on his phone.

"You've got a point," Joeb said finally. He poured himself a cup of coffee, breathing in the heady scent of it. The steam warmed up his face. "But," he said. "Right now I don't trust anyone. People are _dying_. And for all I know it could be you, or even Cammy. I'm just sick of this bullshit. I don't trust any of you."

Zack regarded him coolly. "Well I don't trust you either."

_So much for everybody's cooperation... _Cammy thought to herself sadly as she looked at all the Chosen Ones who were now glaring at each other.

At that moment, something rang within Joeb's pocket. He cursed under his breath. "Sorry guys, I gotta take this." He flipped the phone open and said into the mouthpiece as he walked away, "Mom? Hello? Yeah, nothin' much, it's great here..."

The three stared at his retreating figure. "Did he just...?" Jeka asked, looking up from his phone.

"Yep, the thirty-something year old who's apparently a crack shot with a rifle, was just talking to his mom," Zack snorted.

And much to the boys' shock, Ri giggled. Her eyes were still wet, but she was smiling. The tension and guilt Zack had felt in his stomach lessened slightly. He was glad she was smiling. It had been a long time since he had really cared about anyone since what had happened at Crossington...

He forced his thoughts away from that memory. It would not do to think about what had transpired there and why he had left.

* * *

><p>When Brandon opened his eyes, he noticed it was no longer night time. It was late afternoon, judging by the golden light that streamed through his window. Wincing, he sat up. There was a throbbing pain at the back of his head and when he touched his fingers to the lump, he wasn't at all surprised to find that the pain increased. Taking a shaky breath, he looked around, taking in his surroundings. He must be on the top floor, where the lab was because that's also where the medical ward was. He looked down at the wires attached to him that were monitoring his pulse. No needles sticking in him which was good, although it seemed that, judging from the bandaid on his upper forearm, that somebody had taken a blood sample.<p>

He closed his eyes trying to remember what had happened. He remembered the disorientation of watching Rio go down and felt a wave of nausea cross him. He remembered the insanity he had felt seeing her die. _Rio..._ he thought. He was not close with the pink-haired angel - In fact, he did not even particularly like her. He thought she centered her life too much around Ike. Her emotions were everywhere.

But it didn't prevent him from feeling what he'd felt when she died. Even worse, he'd felt ashamed. Instead of passing out, he should have done _something_. He should have saved her. But Brandon... Brandon was not a hero. He was...

...He was a coward. He had panicked, and that was why she died. It was all his fault. He bit his lip, staring at his fisted hands. "Damn," he said very quietly to himself. "Damn. Damn, damn, damn!"

"Brandon?" a faraway voice asked. His head shot up. Somebody was here with him, he had not anticipated that.

"Who is it?" he called out warily.

"Don't be frightened. It's just me. Drey." He heard her walk towards him before pulling his curtain open to stare at him.

She normally looked very pretty, Brandon had to admit to himself - it probably was a side effect of having dragon blood in her - But today she looked like a mess. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a tangled mess, and her skin was paper white, as if all the blood had been drained from her. Upon seeing him awake though, her lips split into a wide grin. "Oh Brandon, you're alive," she sighed. And then she started to _cry._

Dumbstruck, Brandon watched her silently, not knowing what to say. He didn't like her much either - Their meeting on the plane had not left a pleasurable favor on him. So he watched her for a moment.

"You're alive!" she said to herself, and gave a wild little laugh. "I thought you were going to die or be committed to an insane asylum or something. I thought I was too late..."

"Um, Drey?" Brandon asked weakly.

"What?" she snapped, despite her tears which she'd successfully stopped. She gave him a furious look. "Do you know how long I've been here? All night, ever since they brought you both in."

_Wait, both?_ Brandon looked at her questioningly. "Who else was brought in?"

"Rio obviously!"

"Rio... Rio's alive?" The question came out as a hiss.

Drey's face crumpled further, but much to Brandon's relief, she did not break out crying again. "She's alive, but barely. The doctor thinks she's never going to wake up. Her health has been deteriorating. Her pulse has been growing weaker and weaker. She's on life support."

Brandon felt like he'd been punched in the stomach by a soccer ball. "What?" he wheezed. "What happened? Tell me everything."

So she did. She told him how she'd gotten the message from Dioclopse, how she'd raced to the mansion as fast as her and Toon Link could, and how Dioclopse had almost directed her to the spot. How she'd found him unconscious and finally, finally, how she'd seen Rio lying in her own blood.

"Did you see anyone in the room?" Brandon couldn't help but eagerly ask.

Drey bit her lip and shook her head. "No," she said. "By the time I got there, the murderer, whoever did this to Rio was gone." Her face showed rage. "But I'll get them."

Brandon studied her for a moment, an idea slowly forming in his mind as she was talking.

Could it be... Could it be...

Could the murderer be...

It couldn't be Drey?

But, he thought as his pulse quickened, some of it fit. Drey had the blood of the dragons in her. Hybrids or changelings, Brandon knew from reading about them, were usually unstable. You only had to look at Lynn. What if it had been Drey all along? What if she'd found Sean, and he'd said something and had gotten her upset and... and... Brandon knew Drey had a serious anger management problem. Perhaps that's what had happened when she'd killed Sean and Wario. _Nobody_ liked Wario. Sean was still a mystery, but maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, wasn't he found in the basement.

It just didn't make sense how Drey had found Brandon and Rio so quickly.

But there was still one thing that didn't make sense, and that was this: Why had Drey killed off Rio and not Brandon? Did she not have enough time to do so?

Brandon had to admit, his theory was extremely weak, especially since Drey's method of using things like guns seemed implausible. Especially since Drey already had a witness with her the whole time. All Brandon had to do was question Toon Link to know whether Drey's whole story was true.

"We'll find out who it is," he said with steely resolve.

The murderer would not best him in wits.

* * *

><p>"Bye, Mom," Joeb said and with a sigh he shut off the phone. He wasn't going to tell her what he was facing here. He knew it would only make her worry and stress out over him. He didn't want anyone to care about him enough to question him. That wasn't the way Joeb worked. Questions only led to answers that could get him diagnosed with some psychotic problem.<p>

Purposefully, he set off down the corridor that led to Master Hand's office. It was on the main floor he knew. If Zack and Ri were too _moral_ to look through all the files, then he'd have to do it himself. It was best he worked alone. Bringing people along would only slow him down.

Unfortunately for Joeb though, there'd be people following him whether he liked it or not. First, he ran into those pesky twins in parkas. What were they called? Ice Shooters? Snow Climbers? ...Like it mattered, really. Joeb had never been a huge fan of Smash Bros.

The Ice Climbers were followed by a couple of other suspicious looking people like Lyn, Elizebeth, Snake, Lucario, that angel guy they called Pit, that Robot that was so imaginatively called ROB and a few other Smashers. It seemed like all the Smashers and Chosen Ones alike were always nearby. He had to face the facts - this Mansion was a lot more cramped and crowded than he'd initially thought it was on TV. The business with bunking was already driving him up the wall, not to mention the fact that there were no people to pick up after him.

As he stalked down the hall and approached Master Hand's Office he paused. His hand quickly went to his holster, as he felt like he was being watched. His pulse was still normal - Joeb wasn't the kind of person who got frightened quickly. But he _wasn't _going to let anybody sneak up on him.

He whirled around, withdrawing his gun so fast and at the last second made his finger stop pressing the trigger because the people in front of him were none other than Cammy and Ness and both of them looked just as surprised as he did.

"What are you doing here?" All three of them said at the same time.

"Looking for clues," they all responded.

They all narrowed their eyes at each other. Joeb had the decency to put his gun away. He had some psychotic problems he knew, but he wasn'tcrazy enough to shoot a couple of kids even though he wasn't about to rule them off his suspects list. Finally, he spoke first. "You were looking for the files, right?"

Cammy nodded slowly. "It's our best bet to solve this once and for all."

"How am I supposed to know that you didn't come here to destroy it?" Joeb asked, his grip on the gun tightening.

Ness cocked an eyebrow. "What makes you think that we don't think the same thing about you?"

Joeb narrowed his focus on Ness. "You were the guy who found Sean's body. What if it was you who killed him?"

Ness looked startled. "It wasn't! Why would I do it?"

Joeb shrugged his shoulders lazily. "Who knows? It's not like I care. I just want to put an end to this. So how about this - Say all three of us walk in there? That way all three of us can check those files out and make sure that nobody here's hellbent on destroying them."

Was it his imagination or did Cammy actually start to look nervous? "Um," she said. "Wait..."

But before she could get another word in, Ness cut in. "Yeah, I agree. Let's do it."

Joeb was more curious now than ever. What could Cammy be so nervous about? Unless there was something she was hiding in that room... It had been the first time Joeb had seen something that wasn't mischievous or happy on her face and he wasn't sure whether he liked it or not.

* * *

><p>"Okay, listen up team," Mario said. All eight original Smashers were in the Lounge where Rio had been shot at yesterday. After Samus and Captain Falcon had taken blood samples and pictures, the place had been thoroughly cleaned. "You are the only Smashers I can trust because I've known you to be apart of this group for the longest time. We're the originals and therefore, it is our job to take care of things while Master Hand is away."<p>

They all looked solemnly back at him except for Samus, Link and Pikachu. All three looked as exhausted as he felt. The four of them had stayed up all night trying to make sense of it but none had come up with any solutions. It was Samus who had suggested that all the original Smashers - That was to say, Mario, Link, Samus, Pikachu, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, Luigi, Ness, Jigglypuff, Yoshi and Fox - Could be trusted with the actual investigation. Mario trusted these twelve with his life and he knew the others felt the same. So while Jigglypuff, Luigi, Captain Falcon and Ness were off to spy on those they felt likely were suspects, the rest of the eight were inside the lounge having a meeting.

"We need a plan to catch the murderer. We need to catch him fast. Aside from knowing that he's one sneaky bastard, we don't got much information unless we work together. Any ideas? Samus?"

Samus cleared her throat and snapped to attention at once. "Well, from the autopsy of Sean, it was discovered that his heart was missing meaning that somewhere here the heart is around. Maybe we can search for that."

Luigi spoke up too. "Also, when we got to Wario's body, we found his right arm missing. We don't know if it was simply burned off, but when Samus and I checked the boiler, we couldn't locate any burned off limbs."

Kirby swallowed nervously. "So what you're saying," he squeaked. "Is that the murderer collects trophies."

Mario scratched his chin - He hadn't shaved in a day and a half and he could already feel stubble around his face. "Serial killers often do that. They collect things. This however," he paused. "This is highly unusual. I don't think I've ever found anybody who collects body parts because it's messy. Whoever the killer is must either be very crazy or very stupid. I'm about to go with the former."

Fox crossed his arms. "So all we have to do then, is follow our noses."

"Easy for you to say," Link said, rolling his eyes. "How come we haven't been able to smell rotted flesh? Unless you have?" he asked, looking at Fox who frowned and shook his head.

"I haven't, come to think of it."

Samus scratched her head. "Maybe," she said. "Maybe this person has some sort of technology or," she swallowed as if she was about to say something that she'd regret. "Magic. Or something. Something that preserves or at least conceals the smell." Link couldn't help but smile humorlessly - Samus was a staunch disbeliever in magic despite seeing people like Zelda and Ganondorf using it all the time.

Donkey Kong cleared his throat. "Okay, now that we've established to look out for hearts and missing arms, what about the motives, huh? Why would anybody do this?"

It was a question they all pondered. "Jealousy?" Luigi asked quietly.

Yoshi shook his head. "We can't rule out the fact that it may be one of ours. If it were jealousy that would mean it would be one of our guests, but let's face it, it could be one of us too. We can't rule out everyone."

"Then why are we ruling out ourselves? Who's to say it wasn't one of us?" Pikachu shot back.

"Quiet!" Donkey Kong roared, slapping his chest with his palm. "We're not going anywhere by accusations!" All the Smashers looked at him. In a more quiet voice, he said, "Yoshi brings up a good point. We have to consider that the other Smashers could have done it. But on what grounds?"

"Revenge?" Kirby asked. "Remember that message on Sean's chest? _'You all are next?'_ Well what if it's revenge on something? And remember Wario? He was dressed up to look like a pig being served as the main course."

Samus ran a hand over her hair, shuddering at how his body looked, charred and deformed with that shiny red apple in his mouth. "The killer clearly was sending us a message. I'm not so sure about Sean - maybe the killer didn't know Sean that well - but it looks like each of his victims, if he or she has the time, makes sure that the victim is made to look at his worst. In Wario's case it was well known that he was well, greedy and selfish. Like a pig."

"Then how do you explain Rio?" Luigi asked.

"I can't," Samus admitted. "But I'm thinking since it wasn't really a clean kill - meaning that she's not dead - he or she didn't have time to 'dress' up her death, if you know what I'm saying."

A heavy silence followed this as the Smashers contemplated this. Finally, Luigi had to ask, "Do you think Rio's going to wake up?"

Another long silence.

Fox rubbed his nose wearily and finally said what they were all thinking. "I don't know."

* * *

><p>"So where exactly <em>are <em>the files?" Joeb asked as they all entered the room. Master Hand's office was spacious. But the only pieces of furniture in the room were the enormous desk in the middle, the chairs on either side and the bookshelves that aligned the right and left walls. In the back, there was a large window that overlooked the spacious lawn and the dock that sat upon the shallow end of the lake.

Ness shrugged. "Lucas said it was in his desk." The psychic boy quickly walked over towards the desk and stared at all the desk's drawers. There was a locked one at the end on the right side. "That one has to hold it. Lucas told me that Snake had to pick a lock to get to the files."

Joeb frowned. "I don't know how to pick locks. Do you?" he asked Ness who shook his head, looking embarrassed that this was one thing he couldn't do.

Cammy smirked. "Cammy can do it!" she exclaimed, and then realized what she'd just said and quieted down. Joeb once again saw the worry written all over her face - What _was_ the little girl trying to hide? Joeb didn't want to rule out anyone in the Mansion as a suspect, but if he had to guess, he wouldn't have thought Cammy capable of...

...He forced his thought away from that. The truth lay in that desk, and no matter what Cammy was trying to protect, he'd get those answers. "Can you open it? If not, I'll just shoot the lock off. I doubt Master Hand'll care if there's some valuable information in there."

Cammy nodded slowly. She took two bobby pins that were somehow hidden in her hair and crouched over the desk and inserted one at the bottom and the other one at the top. For two minutes, she worked at it, fiddling with the upper bobby pin until finally there was a faint _click_!

Ness eagerly jammed the cabinet open and then stared for a moment. From his point of view, Joeb couldn't see why he'd done so.

"What is it?" he asked.

Relief was evident over Cammy's face, which made Ness's next sentence understand. "They're gone. Somebody, someone... they must have taken them."

Slowly he slid the cabinet shut as a hopeless sort of ringing filled Joeb's ears. All he could think of was that whoever the murderer was was always one step ahead of them.

* * *

><p><strong>How long has it been? I don't even want to... :P But here you are. Sorry I kept you waiting and at quite a cliffhanger! Many of you thought Rio was dead, but nope... Not yet. And I can tell you something else too. She won't be the next one to die either.<strong>

**In the span of this chapter and the last chapter I've managed to delete 2 fictions... But don't fear, I'm not deleting this one yet. I have the plot all down and even though it's difficult to write (Not in terms of plot because I already know what's going to happen, heh) I'm not giving up yet! No sirree. I'm going to keep this up 'til the very end. I'm not sure how long it'll be in terms of chapters... But I'm thinking it'll maybe be around 20? If that's the case then we're not even halfway finished! Guess that means I've got to quicken the pace!**

**Stay tuned... Keep giving me your guesses and your feedback if any of you are still around. Muahahahahaha!**


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